


The consequences of our actions

by navvy



Series: The choices we make [3]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:14:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navvy/pseuds/navvy
Summary: The consequences of Albus' deflection and the Ministry's actions are long reaching. The British Ministry will be the first in line.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald
Series: The choices we make [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852957
Comments: 41
Kudos: 80





	1. The things that death cannot touch

**Author's Note:**

> So, I went into this page "The Golden Throats Wiki" to figure out what voice range Johnny Depp had (just for a passing comment on the text, and now I understand other authors complaining about time wasted looking for facts which don't really add to the story :D). It says Tenor and I am going with that definition as I can't distinguish between a soprano and a tenor or a contralto or anything else. Apologies to anyone musically inclined if it is not right and I will be happy to change it if I am wrong.
> 
> Also, I had started to write what now will be chapter two when I realized I wanted to know what had happened with Credence's family... so what it was going to be a few lines became almost all the chapter.
> 
> This is part three of the series, the Minstry consequences. Newt and friends should be next on the series, feel free to send more ideas for me to write (if you enjoy this and my works :D)
> 
> This work is unbetaed. Sorry for all the mistakes and feel free to point them out to me so I can fix them.

Albus was dreaming a good dream, full of summer's heat and the smells of the forest. He was lying down on the hill behind Godric's Hollow graveyard, the soothing warmth of the summer and the sun's rays warming his naked body. He felt a warm body behind him, all naked hot skin covering his back like a silk mantle. 

He let out a content sigh when he felt the familiar breath caressing his back. He sank a bit further into the pillow below his head, so soft and inviting... wait a moment, pillow? 

Albus opened his eyes in surprise looking to the four-poster bed he was lying into. A small sliver of light was entering from the drawn drapes and he was surprised to hear a soothing sound like water running - coming from one of the fountains at the inner courtyard where one of the open windows faced - which had been what had probably made him believe he was back at that summer. He turned around a bit, rising lightly on his right elbow to see the sleeping form of his blonde lover lying face down at Albus' back, covering Albus' body like he couldn't let go of him even when dreaming. 

Gellert was truly a wonderful sight to wake up to. He was naked - as far as Albus could see with a bedsheet tantalisingly draped over his lower half - lying face down with his head just next to Albus' on the pillow. He had an arm and a leg over Albus to anchor him to his body and Albus' movement prompted him, even in his unconscious state, to tighten both of them more securely around his omega. 

Albus twisted within his lover's arms to face him until he was lying down on his left side, his face barely an inch away from Gellert's and his front touching Gellert's left side. Gellert allowed the movement with a small grumble and he drew Albus even closer to his body once Albus had settled in his new position. Albus was almost buried under the bigger bulk of the Alpha with Gellert's face buried at his neck and the rest of his body flush against Albus.

Albus laid down there uncomplaining, his hands busy mapping the man above him with tender caresses over the alpha's back until reaching the spiky hair. Albus had initially missed the long hair the other had at sixteen, but he had to admit he was starting to come around to Gellert's new style. It was bold, sharp and aggressive but when Albus touched it, it felt soft and smooth. 

Albus felt it was a metaphor of their own relationship. Out there, with Gellert's acolytes and the public, Gellert was brash, boldly claiming and marking Albus as his omega. He wasn't disrespectful or disregarding of Albus, but he was every bit a newly mated Alpha: protective, proud and aggressively daring anyone to come too close to his omega. Albus had patiently accepted the attitude, knowing it was a common one for newly mated alpha / omega couples. 

He expected it would tone down in a few weeks. In the meantime, even their visit to Albus' brother - never mind the rest of it - had the Alpha barely able to let Albus step out of his arms. It had been difficult to convince Gellert to leave Albus to go in alone and the alpha would have probably gone berserk if he knew Albus had been waiting at the bar alone until Aberforth arrived from his little 'business' meeting. When Gellert had finally arrived as planned, Albus knew that Aberforth had thought the two of them were trying to annoy him with their closeness, their caresses and the outright public displays. But honestly, it had been all Albus could do to avoid Gellert going into some kind of rampage every time Aberforth made a disparaging comment.

Albus had forgotten - or had become too used by now - about Aberforth's insults and insinuations or he would have tried to avoid the two of them to be at the same room again this soon on their bonding. He had believed that Gellert wouldn't feel threatened by Albus' brother and they could help Credence to make peace with his past and got some answers.

It had gone about half-right anyway. They had gotten Credence's mother's name and her family address. Gellert had a bit of fun making sure Aberforth wouldn't be able to disturb their plans although Albus had him to promise him he wouldn't kill his brother. But he wasn't as naive to ignore how much leeway that left for someone as imaginative as Gellert Grindelwald. The other's intention to get some revenge on what had happened at Godric's Hollow - which had forced them apart for thirty years - was clear for anyone who knew him as well as Albus. Albus was resigned he couldn't keep the other of acting now or later and he had, by the time he had left the bar, been too annoyed by Aberforth's attitude - now and towards Credence's mother - to leave him to reap what he had sowed. 

In the meantime, Credence and Albus had gone ahead to Glenfinnan where they started their search for Nessia's remaining family. Albus' mind went back at what had happened.

* * *

Glenfinnan was a hamlet in the Lochaber area of the Highlands. As it happened with Godric's Hollow, the magical community was mixed among the muggle one. However, Albus was starting to suspect the household they were looking for wasn't a magical one. 

No that it matter. For a wizard of Albus' skill, knowing Nessia's last name, it wasn't difficult to locate the McKenna's. They were led by Albus' spells to a small cottage at the outskirts of the town which looked old and barely maintained. The roof was worn and growing vegetation at several spots as did the stone walls which looked grey and eroded. Albus was more certain than ever that Nessia's parents had been muggles or from a very low-magic - and poor - background. No wizard's house would usually become that deteriorated. Even the poorest wizard would cast - or hire someone to cast - charms to maintain the outside walls of their homes from becoming this damaged. 

Most of the wizarding world was composed by wizards and witches who hadn't enough power to go to Hogwarts, that was true enough, but that didn't make them muggles. They had magic, usually some form of family magic where they were more proficient, and they lived immersed in the wizarding world. There were charms and potions which would allow keeping the vegetation away from the stones and stop the erosion. So the state of the house Albus' spell had led them to... it pointed for Nessia having been muggle-born. 

Credence was silent at Albus' side, looking to the house with a blank expression on his face. There wasn't any sign of the people inside and Albus wondered if the family had moved away at some point over the last few years, that would also explain the state of the walls. Although, the house didn't look abandoned - only old and poorly repaired - it was strange there weren't any signs of life at this hour of the evening. 

There was only a way to know. Albus walked decidedly to the door and knocked firmly on the front door with the old iron knocker. The sound was loud among the silence around them and Albus tried to keep hopeful for Credence's sake. The boy had followed Albus reluctantly - unwilling to leave the omega alone - until he stopped next to him, his brow eyes wide-eye and fixed on the door like it was a dangerous artefact. 

Albus had almost convinced himself that the family wasn't there when a small sound reached his ears and the door started to open. At first sight, it seemed like no one had opened the door but then Albus lowered his eyes to the small woman standing on the open doorway. She had probably never reached 5 feet tall, and age had robbed her from even more inches. Her dark clothes had blended so well with the hallway that Albus had missed to see her at first.

She looked as old and worn as the house and Albus wondered if this woman was a neighbour or someone from Credence's family. The young man's thoughts seemed to follow Albus' and he had recovered his voice again because he was the first to talk.

"Hello ma'am, I am sorry to interrupt your evening but we are looking for the McKenna?" - he asked politely, his gaze fixed on the small woman. The woman's gaze jumped from one man to the other, clearly trying to understand who they were and what they wanted. 

"I am Moyra McKenna, who are you looking for?" - the woman asked, her voice clear despite the age although her tone was dispirited. Albus looked at her more interested now she had confirmed a relationship. It was difficult to find a likeness to Credence given her age and generally demeanour, but Albus thought that the colouration was right for this woman to be a direct relative to the young man.

Credence looked at a loss of how to continue, now they had a name, and Albus took charge of the conversation. 

"Mrs McKenna, we are here because of Nessia McKenna. We are trying to locate her parents or as a close relative as we can track down. We have been told that her family lived here, can you direct us to them?" - Albus asked gently his eyes closely tracking the woman's reaction.

He wasn't disappointed, the woman eyes went wide with surprise and even her stance seemed to straighten at his words. She fixed her gaze on him, now interested and looking him up and down.

"Are you some kind of... what they were called? An Auror? A lawyer? You are an omega, aren't you? How can you have any information about my daughter? She and her sister went missing twenty years ago. If they were alive, why have they been away so long? Why are you here and not them?" - the woman asked with her voice animated but torn between pain and hope. Albus felt for her and tried to correct the assumption before it made any more harm.

"There is not an easy way to say this Mrs McKenna, I am sorry to be the one to bring this news to you" - Albus started carefully, unused to have to deliver this news - "They are dead, ma'am, both of them" - he explained softly. 

The woman's hands went to her mouth to drown out the wordless cry she couldn't keep in. Her brown eyes filled with tears and she had to grab again to the door with one of her hands when the pain almost brought her to her knees. Both Albus and Credence rushed to her side to try to help her. Credence was a bit faster but once he was next to the woman - his grandmother - he seemed unable to decide what to do. 

Albus took charge again and placing a calming arm around her, led her away from the entrance and into the house after signalling to Credence to close the door. He led the woman through the hallway to what he expected it was the kitchen's door while muttering an endless stream of soothing nonsense. It was at moments like these he fully appreciated to be an omega. They were build for this soothing and calming bussiness. Once they reached the door - fortunately, it was the kitchen - he led her to a small table and lowered her on one of the chairs. Kneeling before her, he took her hands between his.

"Credence, find a teapot, would you? Mrs McKenna could use a nice cup of tea" - Albus ordered, his blue eyes fixed on the old woman while he tried to keep her calm. The woman seemed to recover her wits a bit when a warm cup of tea was placed in her hands. 

"My Nessia, dead? And Eilidh too?" - she asked weepily. Albus nodded in response, his voice kind while he explained.

"Yes ma'am, both of them passed away almost twenty years ago. I am sorry to have been this long for this news to reach you, is there someone who we can call to help you out?" - he asked gently, trying to find out what had happened to the rest of the family. He took out a clean, white handkerchief from his pocket for her to use. The old women seemed to take some strength from Albus' calm demeanour. 

"My husband is sick and can barely rise from his bed. My other daughters are all married. Fiona lives close by but she left this week to visit her older sister at Edinburgh" - Mrs McKenna said her hand nervously scrunching the handkerchief. She looked again at Albus' face like he looked familiar but she couldn't place him - "Who are you, sir? Why have you come all this way to give me this news? Were you... a friend of my daughters? What is your name?" - she asked.

Albus shook his head in denial, looking back towards Credence in question. The young Obscurial, now he was here, didn't seem able to muster the will which had made him cross the ocean into the Old Continent to find his family. Albus turned back towards the woman with a sigh.

"I never met any of your daughters I am sorry to say" - Albus said, carefully trying to avoid giving his name. He wasn't as vain to think every wizard and witch knew his name, but here in his own country and with what had happened within the Ministry... he supposed he was lucky that the woman hadn't recognized his face yet - "I do know your grandson, however" - he said leadingly. The woman's eyes went wide and surprised. Credence tensed behind them, waiting for her reaction.

"Grandson? Nessia had a child? Or Eilidh?" - she asked, her voice barely reaching Albus. Albus didn't need to confirm any further because the old woman, _Moyra_ Albus reminded himself, looked past Albus to Credence's still form and in a show of intuition she knew, and her hand went to her mouth again in surprise.

Albus rose from his crouched stance and stepped back some distance to allow the newfound family some space to meet for the first time. Credence looked poised to fly if the woman reacted badly but the old woman rose from the chair and walked up to the young man, her hands already rising to her grandson's face, once she made contact she couldn't stop herself from the tears spilling down her care-worn cheeks. She then drew her young grandson in her arms, forcing Credence to slightly bend to her diminutive height to respond to the embrace. 

Albus was certain that Credence was safe - for now - in the old woman embrace and he decided to snoop a bit while he left them alone to acquaint themselves. 

Leaving the kitchen, he entered again to the darkened hallway where he found the living room - as old and unkempt as the rest of the house it seemed. He saw a pair of doors in the same hall that he suspected went to some storage rooms and maybe a powder room, but what caught his attention were the old stairs leading upstairs. 

He went up quickly stepping through the stairs - trying to avoid stepping too heavily given the state of them - and entered the small upper-floor. It contained a small hallway with two doors. One of them was probably another bathroom and the other's door was slightly ajar, Albus went towards that door and he had almost reached it when a hand closed on his shoulder making him start and go for his wand. 

He spun towards the form behind him, his wand already pointing to his attacker when he locked gazes with the mismatched gaze of his bonded. Albus lowered his wand and let out a low curse.

"Gellert! When did you arrive? Can't you introduce yourself like a normal person? I almost cursed you into the wall!" - Albus complained heatedly.

The blonde laughed softly in response, using the hand he still had at Albus' shoulder to draw the omega into his arms and kiss him soundly. He then kept him into his arms, his forehead resting against Albus'.

"I am sorry _liebe_. I just arrived and saw that muggle woman crying all over Credence. I dislike being cried on so I decided not to announce my presence just yet. I went looking for you and here we are" - Gellert explained easily, his manner relaxed and calm. 

Albus looked at him suspiciously making note of figuring out what he had done to Aberforth which made him this happy. It didn't bode well for the barkeeper. 

Deciding to worry about that later, he turned again towards the dark door and entered the sick-room with Gellert following closely behind. It was small and dark, having just a bed in the centre of the room. In it, an old man was resting, although his movements gave away it wasn't an easy slumber and pain seemed to be his constant companion. 

Albus didn't need to draw closer to the man to understand what he was seeing. Gellert's arm around his waist prevented him from step any closer anyway, and the alpha started to lead him away from the room quickly.

The two of them stopped only when they were at the staircase again, the sounds of Credence and Moyra talking reaching them while they hide in the dark stairs. Gellert drew Albus into his arms like he needed his omega close after seeing the sick man at the bed above. Albus turned in Gellert's arms embracing the taller wizard and letting him burrow his face in Albus' neck. 

"Consumption, don't you think?" - Albus asked thoughtfully once Gellert seemed to have recovered his composure. Gellert nodded in response to the question although he didn't speak out loud or let go of Albus.

Albus was surprised by the blonde's reaction. While the old man's situation wasn't pretty to see, it wasn't like his sickness could be caught by a wizard. Like many other diseases that plagued muggles, wizards were protected from them by their magical cores. They had their own diseases which could affect them badly, but most of the muggle's sickness couldn't be transmitted to wizards or they had potions to solve them.

Gellert seemed to have recovered his equanimity and surrounding Albus' shoulders with his arm, he led them out of the house through the main entrance. Only once they were out again in the fading daylight, he seemed to relax fully and breath easily again. 

The two of them sat at a stone bench, facing towards the house to wait for Credence, Gellert's arm still surrounding his omega. Albus rested his head on Gellert's shoulder, his own hand resting on his mate's leg in silent support. 

They stayed in silence at the bench, waiting until the sunset and Credence's return.

* * *

Albus sighed softly, his mind returning to the present. He caressed Gellert's back absently while he thought back on what had happened over the last few days. Gellert's reaction towards that old muggle - Douglas McKenna - had been surprising to Albus and it had hinted to something disturbing the other wizard. 

Gellert wasn't squeamish about sickness or pain. He couldn't be, given the path he had chosen. Dark magic, blood magic... that all involved a lot of fluids, sacrifice and often pain. But something at that house had shaken Albus' husband in a way he couldn't explain, and the two of them hadn't gotten the time to talk about it.

When Credence had finally left the house, the three of them had left the town without further word, all of them understanding they should wait for a more private place to discuss what had happened. However, once they reached Nurmengard, Credence had bid them farewell wanting to go to his room and sleep off the emotions of the day. Albus had held the boy for a few moments - muttering words of reassurance in the ear of the young beta - before he allowed him to leave, with the promise of coming to them if he needed them. 

Gellert had been surprisingly docile - and clingy - when they reached their rooms, he had obliged Albus while he worked to undress him and all but manhandle him into the bed. Once he was lying on the wide bed, he had watched Albus strip with his gaze intent on Albus' hands and movements. He seemed like he wanted to focus on Albus for the moment and Albus indulged him making his movements more teasing and slow to focus his lover's mind somewhere else as he clearly wanted. Gellert's loving smile and passionate kiss when Albus had finally reached the bed were more than reward enough for him and the two of them had lost themselves into the passion always present in their relationship.

"You have learnt patience these past years _liebling_. You wouldn't have endured restraining your curiosity for this long in the past" - Gellert's smooth tenor said from Albus' chest. 

Albus hugged the alpha to his chest instinctively and Gellert responded with a laugh, moving slightly to cover Albus' whole body with his own. He then lifted his face to focus on Albus, his elbows resting on the pillow at each side of Albus' face.

"I am sorry for scaring you yesterday" - Gellert apologized placing his hands on Albus' bearded jaws while his thumbs caressed the smooth high cheeks. 

"I don't care about the scare Gell, I am just worried about you. You looked really rattled out" - Albus said softly, his own hands going to the broad back caressing the skin at the shoulders, sensing the tension there. He asked warily - "What was about that old man which made you behave like this? Can you talk about it?" - he asked finally, deciding he couldn't avoid the question and now it was out there Gellert could answer it or not, but it wouldn't be an issue between them anymore. 

Gellert's face went soft and fond at Albus' carefully placed question, he rested his forehead on Albus' and started to talk very softly like he was immersed in the memory.

"I haven't been able to show you all my Visions, _liebe_. We have so much to do and so many people to see... some of them are horrific. And your brother's attitude reminded me of the willful blindness of our world, and its people" - Gellert started darkly. Albus stayed silent, not daring to talk to avoid distracting the other of telling something that had been obviously weighing in his mind.

"This next war that is brewing... you can't conceive how much worse it is going to be than the previous one. The Wizarding World has been fearfully watching me and my people, but they can't understand the difference between us and the threat of this muggle war. How terrible weapons the muggles have started to invent and how terrible their fear and hate is about what they don't know - or what they can't control. The new leaders for this next war are already rising, growing, creating contacts and political parties. They started their path at the Great War and the lessons they learnt there will serve them well to start an even more horrifying one" - Gellert continued, his voice low and grave. 

The words he pronounced were so vivid that Albus' mind was already forming an image of them in his mind. Some faceless men plotting away in dark rooms, their minds full of hate looking for someone to make responsible for their pain and failures. For the meaningless state of their lives. And then, those same men walking into crowded rooms, spreading the poison of their ideas into other unhappy people. People who were looking for someone to blame for their unhappiness. For someone to tell them they weren't at fault for any of it. For someone to tell them there was an easy answer for it. An answer which wouldn't imply constant work and effort, or the risk of failure for their own merits, of course - Albus thought bitterly, his own experiences with the laziness of the masses and their unwillingness to own their responsibilities and mistakes still present at his mind. 

"You see the problem" - Gellert's voice intruded in his thoughts again. Albus returned his attention to the blue-and-brown eyes fixed on him. Gellert nodded darkly when Albus turned his attention back to him, his thoughts clear in his face - "Muggle people have become complacent with their superiority. They have created an imperfect system which has failed to give them all they think they deserve, to give them some happiness. Like happiness was something which can be created with their machines. And now they are looking for someone to blame, anyone but themselves" - Gellert affirmed, his words giving shape to Albus' thoughts the same way it had happened when they were younger. 

Albus felt his chest expand with warm at that, despite the seriousness of their situation. Feeling again that connection, that sense of having found the other half of his soul in this wizard which could give form to his thoughts like they were his own, _because they were his own_. He had missed that as he had lost a limb which had never stopped to pain him with its lost. 

He tried to focus again on Gellert's words, not wanting to lose sight of the reasons he had started this conversation.

"What was about your visions which remind you of them when you saw Mr McKenna. You looked like you had seen your death at that bed" - Albus asked, trying to recover his trail of thoughts. He then felt alarmed at his own comparison - "You haven't, have you? You haven't seen your death without telling me?" - he asked quickly, looking into Gellert's eyes trying to read the truth there. 

Gellert immediately denied with his head, his hands gentle on Albus' face.

"Of course I haven't seen my death. It doesn't work like that, it is rare the Seer able to see something like that" - he confirmed seriously, and then he smiled teasingly - "You know me, Al. Do you think I would take a Vision like that lying down?" 

Albus had to smile in return. No, Gellert wasn't a man to accept his death - or Albus' - with equanimity. He would fight it with every breath of his body, if only for his deep-set belief that he had to conclude his self-imposed duty to change their world. 

"It has to do with the Visions I saw of this Second War. Of the atrocities that those men are planning to do to those they felt are different, or those they will appoint as their scapegoats for their Crusade. It will be terrible Al, men and women led to their camps for killing or experimenting. Treated like they were lower than animals, sick and wasted and waiting for dead like that man. _Praying_ for death to all and any gods they believe in, and for a stop on their suffering" - Gellert concluded, his face twisted at the remembrance. 

Albus waited for a few moments more to see if he needed to say anything else before he drew him into his arms again, his hand guiding Gellert's face to his neck and the source of every soothing pheromone Albus' omega side was able to produce. His mind whirling with the revelation - and the appalling images Gellert had produced, and making a mental promise to actually find time to see all of Gellert's Visions. They had seen many of the main ones but Gellert had thirty years worth of them - Albus tried to find the words to help his lover. 

"We have always known it wouldn't be easy Gell. That many of the atrocities you have seen we can't avoid, that is not what this is about. I don't think we can prevent this War you have seen" - Albus admitted softly, his brilliant mind already working on and dismissing hundreds of plans - "We can't change the muggle's society or the path they have taken that will led them to this new conflict. Not yet anyway. But we need to work with the Magical governments to avoid our people to be caught and suffer at this" - Albus concluded firmly, his mind settled - "That is what you have been aiming for, aren't you? For the protection of our people above all, for us to make the effort - the _priority_ \- to protect ourselves" - Albus asked softly. Gellert nodded in response.

"I have. I don't care for muggles Albus, I won't lie to you. They can rot away in their corrupted society and kill themselves for all I care. They are violent, intolerant... their first reaction at anything they can't understand is fear. And then aggression. We can't tolerate their attacks to us any longer or allow their senseless conflicts to affect our society" - Gellert said passionately. 

Gellert was a sight to behold when he was like this and Albus admitted he was getting a bit sidetracked right now. As important as this discussion was, they may have let it for a time when they weren't this... naked. Gellert had risen from the bed to walk around while exposing his argument as it was his wont in these situations. Gellert's mind worked better when he was walking around while thinking or talking. It used to drive his aunt crazy when they used his rooms at her house to plan and plot as she could hear him walking around all the time from her living room. It had been convenient for them as it had given them the excuse to ward the room so no sound would escape it. That had come handly when they had used it for... other activities.

And right now, Gellert's naked form walking around the room while he intensely described his plans was making Albus... a bit hot under the collar. 

A heavy form fell suddenly on top of him, and Gellert's lips brushed his ear when he spoke softly into it.

" _Liebe, liebe_ you haven't been thinking about the muggles and the war any longer, have you?" - he asked wickedly, his voice amused again - "You can't look at me like that and expect for me not to react" - he cried.

"You can't _walk_ around like that and expect for me not to take notice!" - Albus complained in return, spreading his hands on Gellert's chest to try pushing him away a bit. Without success. The alpha wasn't bulking from his place on top of his omega and Albus wasn't really making that much of an effort to push him away. Albus sighed in feigned resignation, his hands now caressing the broad back while he tried to concentrate again in the matter at hand.

"It will be difficult to unite the magical governments under this idea. Not that I believe most of them will care about the muggles or what they are doing, but they will resist the change. They will resist to admit we _need_ a change. They won't believe the muggles are a threat" - Albus observed out loud, his mind going towards the British Ministry and the difficulties they had at Hogwarts when they tried to implement the least change in the curriculum or - even worse - to add a new class or elective. 

Gellert seemed to follow along with his thoughts or maybe they were as in sync as usual.

"You know... we should explore the mood of the ministries. And I know exactly where to start. I think I promised an old friend of yours a visit, didn't I?" - Gellert commented in an innocent voice. 

Albus raised an eyebrow sceptically.

* * *


	2. Torquil's very bad week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some times the consequences for our actions take years to show. Sometimes is just next week we see them. Torquil is among the fortunate ones who don't need to wait.
> 
> Well, Gellert certainly thinks so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbetaed, so very sorry for any and all mistakes.

Torquil's week had gone as good as he expected to go. Dumbledore's escape - and its consequences - had been spreading all over the Ministry like an oil stain.

From the Minister through the press, Aurors, shopkeepers to the students at Hogwarts, everyone had been alarmed at the news that the well-known - and well-liked - Hogwarts' Professor had disappeared into thin air after a botched Ministry ritual.

Torquil had managed to hide that the Professor had been bonded to the Dark Lord. Despite his best efforts - and those of his Aurors - Dumbledore's incarceration and the plans of the Ministry - of Torquil - to bond him to a Ministry wizard so he would submit to his orders had leaked out almost immediately. 

Grindelwald - and Dumbledore - had been conspicuously absent from the public eye over the last few weeks. Torquil was starting to suspect that, for the moment, it suited the Dark Lord better to keep the Magical World guessing about the fate of their beloved Professor - the only man who had said to be equal in power to him. 

All this mess was making Torquil second-guess himself and his decision to keep what had happened at the ritual - and the Ministry blunder allowing the Dark Lord to participate in the first place - hidden. He had expected for the Dark Lord to openly claim his possession of Dumbledore, possibly by dropping his dead body at the Ministry's doors. 

Torquil had furiously prepared their alibi: first, he had erased their participation on the ritual from any paperwork - and even Obliviated some memories. Second, he had prepared an explanation: he had been planning to claim that Dumbledore had escaped from the Ministry's hands and into Grindelwald's hands and gotten killed in his arrogance to think the Dark Lord would accept a turncoat. He knew that despite his best attempts, there were some rumours of the Professor's bonding, but he had planned to admit that they had tried to bond him - for his own safety - but he had escaped prior to the ceremony. 

Entering into his own home, after Apparating to the entrance hallway, he walked to his bedroom while calling for his personal house-elf. 

"Hoopy!" - he called while entering the darkened room, already taking off his coat and jacket. 

He had loosened the knot of his tie and was starting to open his shirt when he realized that Hoopy hadn't answered his call. He froze in his tracks, his conscient mind finally noticing the darkness and _quietness_ of the house. He looked around the room he was into trying to see through the dark at the corners of the room, behind the long and heavy curtains. Every dark corner of his room seemed now a threat. He hadn't bothered to light more than the small light in his dresser's side because he had been expecting to walk out of the room quickly for some dinner.

He was still paralyzed with indecision when the choice was taken from his hands. A red spell came out from the dark to his unprotected back and Torquil fell unconscious to the floor, his hand opening and letting loose the wand he had belatedly taken out from his pocket.

A dark shape walked to his side, but his threatening aspect was lost on the unconscious Auror.

* * *

Torquil regained consciousness slowly, his mind still fighting the stunner he had received. He opened his eyes - noticing he had them closed - to his own house, lighted by several floating lights. He looked around trying to orientate himself.

He was sitting in a chair, in the middle of his own study, spelled immobile to the furniture. He noticed he could only slightly shift his head around before the spell impeded him from further movement. The rest of his body, he was unable to move.

"I have to say I have been waiting for this" - an accented - familiar - voice said from the shadows at his left. Torquil turned his head, already knowing what he would see there, his heart trying to escape his ribcage up to his throat. 

Gellert Grindelwald's tall form appeared before Torquil dressed - as he usually presented himself in public - in his trademark dark clothes. A long dark coat, trailing past to his knee-high boots to mid-calf. Both the coat, the boots and the jacket below had a dark, clean, military-style to them which added the threatening impression.

Looking up, his eyes reached the Dark Lord's face, his white-blonde hair spiked up adding again to the dramatic effect of his mismatched gaze. Torquil tried to slow down his pulse while noticing all those details, trying to convince himself that a man who used so many props to his image couldn't be as terrifying as he portrayed himself. 

The problem was that it all worked perfectly. At least to Torquil's admittedly biased opinion. He felt like a bug pinned to the chair for the Dark Lord amusement, just waiting for his very-painful fate.

Grindelwald's amused smile wasn't reassuring. 

"Good evening, my friend. I have to apologize for the wait. But I am certain you will be understanding of my motives. I am sure that an upright citizen as yourself will understand the need of an Alpha to fully claim their mate before they comply with their other duties" - he said walking up to Torquil's bounded form, the strange wand he had sported at the ritual chamber in his hand. 

Torquil tried to understand the implication of Grindelwald's words. 

"Claim their mate? Do you mean to tell me that you have forced Dumbledore as your omega?" - he asked horrified. Despite Dumbledore's parting words and his apparent willingness to follow the Alpha he had been bonded to - and the unspoked relationship the two of them had at their youth - Torquil hadn't believed that the Hogwarts' Professor would voluntarily mate the Dark Wizard. 

"Forced?" - Grindelwald asked darkly. He stepped up to Torquil's side and placed the point of his wand at Torquil's throat, his eyes dark and threatening - "It was your plan to _force_ him into a bond of your choice. Some spineless Alpha which would make your bidding and _force!_ Albus to fight me and risk his life. You _Hurensohn_ " - Grindelwald said darkly. 

Torquil almost swore he felt the tip of the wand warming with an unspoken spell.

"My love, as much as I appreciate the defence of my virtue - whatever it's left of it - we have come here with a plan and we are in a tight schedule. Travers here is a moron, but a highly placed one, at the Ministry. Sooner or later they may try to contact him and will notice he has gone dark" - Dumbledore's soothing voice said from Grindelwald's back. 

Torquil felt his hopes crashing to the ground with the worst scenario possible unfolding before his own eyes.

"Dumbledore! You can't be in here with him" - he squeaked, his throat still compressed by Grindelwald's wand. 

Dumbledore appeared at Grindelwald's side, the light shining on him like he was some knight of legend. He looked very different from the last time Torquil had seen him. His hair had grown long - longer than it should have, probably a spell - and he had switched his formal greys for a darker grey and black outfit. What it was unchanged were his brilliant blue eyes, but they now shined with life and passion instead of anger as they did when he was in the Ministry's hold.

" _Liebe_ , everything is secured then?" - Grindelwald asked lovingly, looking down to the man at his side. 

Under Torquil's horrified gaze, the scary Dark Lord stepped back from him to turn his attention to the Hogwarts' _former?_ professor. He caressed back the slightly mussed hair from Dumbledore's face and, like he was a normal alpha, checked him over with his eyes to make sure he was alright.

"Nothing is coming in or out of this house without our knowledge and consent" - Dumbledore confirmed confidently. 

Torquil felt a spike of irritation despite the situation when hearing that hated confidence which was the younger man's trademark. Even as soon as thirty years ago, as a just appointed professor, the other man had soon started to get recognition for his brilliant and original research and impeccable grades. His victories in the duelling competitions, when he chose to compete, had also gotten him the fame of being one of the most powerful Hogwarts' graduates in centuries if not more.

Torquil's own trajectory, even if it was full of accomplishments and accolades, couldn't compare. The two of them hadn't been schoolmates, fortunately, as Travers was ten years older than the other. He was honest enough even if only to himself that he wouldn't have wanted to compete with the other man at school if they had shared classes. It was bad enough to have fallen short time and time again when the Ministry preferred to listen to the younger man advice than his own. That was one of the reasons he had been so viciously happy to put the omega under his power. 

Or so he had thought. He still couldn't understand how his fail-proof plan had failed so spectacularly. Who could have imagined that a thirty-year past relationship which had apparently failed and when none of the parties had made contact in that time would still be an issue?

Grindelwald's hated voice interrupted his internal ranting.

"Well, that will be enough for now. We just need a bit of time with our friend here. I am sure he will be very cooperative. He has been so nice to us so far after all, hasn't he?" - the blonde asked, Dumbledore nodded evenly.

"I will let you two to get acquainted. I want to take a look around in see what I can find. Let me know if you need me" - Dumbledore said easily, like his _husband_ wasn't threatening with torture Torquil!.

"Dumbledore! You can't leave me to me his mercy! He is a murderer!" - he pleaded to the other man. 

Dumbledore, who had already started for the door, stopped minutely at the threshold looking back to him. Torquil felt an unwilling shot of admiration when he saw how at easy and calm he was feeling. He always seemed to feel at ease no matter in what situation he found himself. Even when captured and incarcerated by the Ministry, outed as an omega, he had barely lost his composure.

"Travers, I am surprised you would find me a fitting rescuer. I am, after all, just an omega. I am sure I should just delegate that kind of decisions on my legal alpha. The alpha that the Ministry decided to chose for me. Oh!" - he exclaimed suddenly, like he was just realizing of something.

He walked back towards them, but before Torquil could understand his intentions he formally waved towards Grindelwald.

"Travers, this is my bonded husband. I don't think the two of you have formally met. Lord Gellert Grindelwald. Love, this is Torquil Travers, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. This kind of formalities have to be met, don't they? Now the two of you are introduced, I can leave you gentlemen to your official business. I am sure that I, as omega, can barely understand" - Dumbledore finished so sarcastically that Torquil could almost taste it in his words. 

Grindelwald was almost doubled over with mirth. He caught the redhead by the arm when he went past him and took him in a passionate kiss. He whispered some words to the professor's ear which made the other man to flush hotly before he left without a further word to Torquil.

Grindelwald watched the omega leave the room with a heated gaze before he turned his focus back to Torquil. His smile was still fond with the memory of his mate, but his words froze Torquil's blood.

"Well, now my mate's unwillingness to come to your help is established, we can start with our little tète-à-tète. I am sure we can reach an agreement. You can tell me all you know, or you can found how much you can take before your minds break, once it's broken I am sure I will be able to pick up what I need, it's all the same to me, but maybe you will have some preference" - Grindelwald said, his tone polite like he was asking Torquil to choose between teas.

Torquil opened his mouth to answer knowing that despite of Grindelwald's words, there wasn't a pain-free path before him.

* * *

Albus started his search around the house systematically. He had decided to start in the last floor and made his way down until he reached the study again, which was on the first floor. Travers' home wasn't as big as other pure-blood residences - this one was a minor residence for the Travers' family, the main residence was actually elsewhere but clearly Travers felt this place would be more comfortable to use with his work at the Ministry. 

While he started to search the upper floor, mostly storage rooms, he tried to bring to mind all he knew of the older wizard.

He hadn't forgotten Travers' attitude when he had incarcerated Albus and some of the words he had babbled over those days had been at the back of Albus' mind for a while. 

Albus hadn't payed much attention to Travers before he became Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He was a few years older than Albus and they hadn't crossed paths at Hogwarts. After Hogwarts, Albus had chosen a path of research and teaching at the school where Travers had started his path at the Ministry. As one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, he had easily made his way through the ranks within the corrupt Ministry. Albus didn't envy his co-workers given the little he had seen of the man. 

Albus looked around the room he was searching with resignation, it was full to the ceiling with old books which no one had even looked at for years, old furniture which had gone out of fashion a century ago if not longer, and some few interesting artefacts which Albus didn't know the use but could be from sex toys to torture devices given how difficult was to figure out their original aspect with the dirt, broken pieces and general disorder.

Albus cast a few spells of his own making, trying to check if Travers had entered that rooms at all. It seemed like only a few shelves on the right of the room had been used recently. 

Albus went there to check. There was some old Hogwarts' books and notes lying around the shelves. Albus took a quick look to some of the essays' grades, unsurprised to see an average of A on most of them.

After making sure that all the papers were Hogwarts' things, he leave the room to keep checking on the next floor.

* * *

Credence was unwilling to leave his room again this morning. Albus and Gellert had left already for the day, after breakfast, with some mysterious words of Gellert about fulfilling a promise - which had made Albus to uncharacteristically roll his eyes and almost drag the other wizard away.

Credence had decided that, while he was curious, for once he was happy not knowing what all that was about. He was certain he would eventually be told - or discover by his own - what had happened. Gellert, after all, wasn't the most discrete of wizards and that kind of glee to fulfil a promise could only be bad news for the recipient. Albus would probably keep things from becoming an international scandal - or at least a scandal which could be traced back to Gellert. They had decided to lay low until they could make contact with some key people.

A soft knock on the door surprised him from his musings and turned his attention to the room's door, surprised. He wasn't used having people visiting his rooms, not actually having any friends or close confidants among Gellert's people except for his uncle who wasn't technically one of Gellert's anyway.

Rising from his place at the room's sofa, he went to the door and opened after a small moment of doubt. Despite his uncle's training, he wasn't skilled still at sensing magic so he couldn't know who was at the other side of the door but by opening it.

Queenie's smiling face greeted him when he finally opened the door, the blonde's cheerful disposition a contrast to Credence's melancholy.

"Honey! How are you doing? It's such a nice morning to be wasted inside. I was going to take a walk through the grounds. It would be nice to have some company and I thought you may want to take a break from all the gloom" - Queenie said cheerfully, her voice as upbeat as usual although Credence had noticed that she didn't really smile despite her friendly attitude.

Credence studied the flighty blonde while pondering her offer, he finally nodded in agreement. He hadn't interacted much with her, despite having heard of her from some of Gellert's other acolytes. She was supposed to be an accomplished Legilimens which was, as far as Credence had been explained, the ability to read minds at will. Apparently, it was usually a learned skill, but in some cases as Queenie, it came naturally. Albus had seemed to be fascinated by the concept, as he usually was with anything and everything new that came to his attention, but he didn't seem threatened by it. As far as Credence could tell, both Albus and Gellert had some built defences against Legilimens. It didn't stop someone like Queenie completely but kept their secrets safe at their own minds.

While all of this was going through his head, he suddenly wondered how much Queenie was picking up. The blonde quickly answered his question.

"You are very loud, sweetie. I can't help but pick up just about everything you are thinking. It's alright, most of the time it's just noise" - Queenie said soothingly like she was talking to a child.

The two of them had left Credence's room to head for the front gardens while they talked. Credence felt a bit irritated at the comment - and Queenie's careful dealings - which prompted him to observe.

"I am not a child, I understand you can't help what you are any more I can't help my own situation. How old are you anyway?" - he asked in curiosity.

"That is not something you ask a lady" - Queenie observed, her manner still flirty as usual but her tone a bit sharper. Credence felt himself flushing in shame. He hadn't felt this out of control since he first met Nagini. He felt even more uncomfortable at the association, trying to keep his mind calm and his thoughts at bay.

Regardless he was successful or not, Queenie didn't comment on it. The two of them had finally reached the gardens, and Queenie led them through a side path towards one of the great terraces which overlooked the beautiful cliffs.

They stopped at the border, looking down at the terrible highs in silence. Credence with his mind lost in the past, wondering for the first time since he left what had happened to Nagini.

Queenie held her silence for a few moments but finally was unable to try and reach out to Credence's pain.

"Teenie and Newt will take of her. They are good like that" - she said softly, comfortingly placing her hand on Credence's arm. 

Credence nodded in thanks but was still unconvinced. Nagini's time had always been shorter than it should. Her curse's final step growing closer and closer every day. Credence had promised her that they would find the solution together, that he would stay with her to the end. But at the first hint that he could find his family, he had abandoned her to her luck even when she had faithfully followed him out of her comfort zone at the circus.

This time, Queenie didn't have any comforting words to tell him, and the two of them continued their path in silence.

They had almost reached the central courtyard again when Queenie finally decided to break their silence.

"Vinda told me you went to meet your family" - she said cautiously. Credence felt more relaxed by this line of questioning than thinking about Nagini. He barely knew those people after all and had little expectation of them.

"I did. My mother's parents are muggles. They live at Glenfinnan. Albus and I went to their house and talked to my grandmother" - Credence explained thoughtfully.

"Muggles? So your mother was muggle-born then?" - Queenie asked fascinated. Her genuine curiosity, and nonjudgmental attitude, relaxed Credence further and allowed him to answer with honesty.

"So it seems. She and her sister Eilidh went to Hogwarts after receiving their letter. Their family was so poor that, even if they didn't understand the full implications of the situation, they were happy to have two mouths less to feed over nine months of the year" - he said, a bit of wonder in his voice at the situation. Queenie made a sympathetic sound at his words.

"You said you talked to your grandmother, was she welcoming? What about your grandfather? Any uncles or aunts?" - Queenie asked interested. Credence shrugged his shoulder a bit overwhelmed but answered after a moment of pause.

"My grandfather is very sick, he can barely rise from bed and I wasn't able to meet him. Moyra McKenna, that's my grandmother, was happy to meet me but she was... I don't think she fully understands what I am, what her daughters were" - Credence explained - "She wasn't... they didn't reject their children as other muggles do. But I don't know if it was because they accepted them as they were or because any chance was better than stay there" - he concluded darkly, the thoughts which had been on his mind all the day finally being verbalized.

Queenie had, by then, taken his arm in solidarity. She seemed to understand that Credence wasn't really expecting any real solution to the situation and wanted just to give voice to his thoughts.

She finally led them back to the house. No words seemed appropriated so they said nothing while they entered into the Fortress.

Credence wondered what Albus and Gellert were doing.

* * *

Albus entered the first room on this new floor without much hope to find anything of interest. While he hadn't expected for Travers to have his plans for the future lying around the house and diagrams pointing out hidden locations, he was starting to suspect that the older wizard had more ambition than a plan to accomplish those ambitions.

Entering the main bedroom where Gellert had knocked out the Auror, he looked around mechanically casting his spells as before. He was surprised when one of the locations spells returned a positive this time, pointing out to one of the drawers on the left bedside table.

He walked closer to the table, automatically casting detecting spells to make certain he wasn't going to get cursed. Travers had some basic privacy spells cast, but given his position, he was surprisingly naive in his approach to security. Albus easily dismantled the protections and opened the drawer.

Inside the compartment, he finally found a few papers with what he was looking for. He sat at the bed while examining the documentation, his eyebrows raising in surprise while he read them.

It seemed like Travers had some actual plans to go with his ambitions after all. Gellert would find this quite interesting, he always preferred the crazy ones to the incompetent after all.


	3. Cause and effect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gellert and Albus realize they have a lot to talk still, and that a magical bond doesn't free them from talking to each other. Albus start to understand there is a lot of worthy causes to fight for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For inspiration of this chapter, I have several sources I will explain:
> 
> 1) The idea of wizards conspiring with muggles to control and harm their own kind, I first read it at "The Marriage Stone" which I have already cited as inspiration in this. I have read this idea again in other stories, but that was the first one for me. And the one where I read the most interesting plot for it. Go and read it.
> 
> 2) Just a small idea I loved when I read it the first time. This is not as much inspiration as it's real life, but I first read it in a book. I loved Asimov's Foundation series when I first read them. At one of those books, I think the first one, a character recorded all the speeches a politician was giving during his visit to his planet. After that, he took them into a program to process and find out what the politician had really promised when he was on the planet, taking out all the useless words. The conclusion of the report was that the politician had said.... Nothing. He had promised them nothing and they were on their own for the future. That idea inspired me the third spell, I though it was fitting. 
> 
> Also, this got a lot longer than I was planning for, I was meaning to make this stories about three-chapters long or less, but... those two are always getting into side-plots. I hope you like the result and this one will be a four-chapter work (I think).  
> As usual, I don't have a beta for this work so, feel free to point out any mistakes and I will be happy to correct them.

Gellert looked down to Travers' pathetic form with some amusement. Even if he wouldn't have annoyed Gellert with his attitude and his actions towards Albus, Travers would have been among Gellert's objectives just for the virtue of his position at the British Ministry of Magic. For someone who had sought that placement, this man was showing a surprising lack of a backbone. It seemed that he hadn't believed he would be at risk and he had taken little precautions. Albus and Gellert had acceded to his home with laughable easiness.

Despite the actions he had taken at the Ministry to stop Gellert and his ideology from spreading - and some of them had been so amusingly radical that Gellert had wondered if he was on his side and he only needed to wait for the results - it was like he thought that the threat would stay outside of his door, away from him when he wasn't at the Ministry.

While he acted as a strong, ruthless man, he seemed to have little resistance to pain. Gellert had barely used a small part of his repertory before the man started to divulge every defence of the Ministry and how to breach them. Gellert hadn't even started to question him! Oh, he wasn't stupid, he realised right away that Travers was ranting about the Ministry because there was something else he didn't want for Gellert to discover. But he was giving away ways to infiltrate the Ministry! If this was the British Ministry best, Albus and he had their work cut out for them. It would be a nightmare to restructure it with actual competent people if they took over. He would have held into the hope of the British being the exception, but he couldn't forget his foray into the American Ministry. Percival Graves had been a mildly competent Auror, but his subordinates didn't even have the brains to realise his disappearance and Gellert's stealing of his identity for _months!_. It had taken Albus to notice that something strange was happening _all the way from Hogwarts!_. He sent that crazy Magizoologist on Gellert's path, and only then they had started to notice something was wrong.

The man was now jabbering about the plans he had made to hide their failure at controlling Albus. As the papers had insinuated, Albus incarceration and following disappearance had become a nightmare for the Ministry's public image.

Travers seemed to have expected for Gellert to _kill_ Albus and dramatically drop his body before the Ministry's doors.

"How trite. If you were to kill me and display my body, you wouldn't have it placed at the Ministry. Maybe at the Great Hall of Hogwarts where you would be certain that every child of Britain would inform their families within the hour instead of running the risk of the Ministry covering the situation" - Albus' calm voice observed from the doorway.

Gellert turned, pleased at the sound of his voice. Albus looked as beautifully composed as he had when he left to investigate the house, but now he had a bundle of parchments in his hand. Although he looked calm, his eyes gave away that something had irritated him. Gellert looked at him curiously. His mate wasn't easily angered as he was usually many steps ahead of anyone else. He normally got more irked by stupidity than for real malice.

"Certainly, the Ministry would be out" - he said absently, trying to figure out what had riled his usually unflappable lover this much - "I would never leave your body in the care of those _schwachsinnige_. Were you to be lost to me by some terrible fate, the world would burn with the news and I would make sure that you would be properly cared for" - he said, his mood turning dark at the thought of losing Albus. His husband walked up to him and kissed him softly in response, soothing him with his presence.

"I'm not sure if that is romantic or disturbing, love. But I appreciate the feeling" - Albus said calmly - "In any case, I have not plans to be entombed this young, I have too much work to do still, and now I have more of it" - he said, his mood turning dark when he looked towards Travers. Gellert remembered the notes he had brought in and, nodding to the bundle, he asked.

"I take you found something of interest?"

Albus' narrowed gaze was still fixed on Travers, but he passed the papers to Gellert. His voice was as cold as Gellert had ever heard it.

"It seems that Travers has been making his own deals of late" - Albus started, walking towards Travers' tied down form.

Gellert was intrigued by his unfamiliar attitude. Albus was always calm and focused, even when something didn't go to plan, he was quick and adaptable. For him to be this angry with Travers, the foolish man must have done something that Albus considered a threat against someone he loved or a true betrayal to the Magical world.

Looking down into the papers, he realised that it was both at once. Which explained quite a bit. He went through the papers quickly, before he went back to the beginning to read them more thoughtfully.

This right here was probably what Travers was trying to hide and Gellert wondered if it was for fear of him or _Albus_ , seeing the Scamander name among the papers. Travers seemed to be very focused on the brothers, particularly the younger one, and Gellert wondered if the reason was only because of his connection to Albus. Travers' actions read a bit... stalker-ish.

Reading further ahead, he found some other interesting - and damming - papers. Travers seemed to have been dealing with the Muggles to finance some kind of research. Gellert wasn't as good as Albus in theoretical bits of magic - but then, not many people were compared to Albus Dumbledore - but he could see that Travers was trying to find a way for muggle weapons to be used against wizards.

As a rule, Muggle weapons were useless against wizardkind. A magical barrier would stop any projectile, and powder and explosives were useless in highly magical environments. That figuring that they even could find those places with the muggle-repealing wards in the first place.

What it was a danger for wizards was when they were living among muggles in mixed towns, or when children wizards met with muggle incomprehension and fear - as Ariana had suffered in person. That was what Gellert wanted to fight against.

This research of Travers however... it raised the stakes even further. Gellert felt his own ire to raise while he read through. He wondered if Travers' actions were triggered by his revolution or Travers' ambitions. In any case, it was an unforgivable betrayal regardless. Even Gellert's worst plans hadn't the destruction of the wizard lives as a final result.

Whatever the reason, Gellert had in his hands the proof a the very threat he was fighting against and see it taking form because of the betrayal of one of their own kind... Gellert would make certain that Travers would see the error of his actions before the days was over.

That's it if he survived Albus' ire. His irate mate was a sight to see.

"Travers, I am feeling very short of patience right now" - Albus was saying, his tone dark. Gellert walked back to them, his attention focused on the omega who had taken out his wand and was waving a complex spell around the bound man.

"You invention?" - Gellert asked, intrigued. Albus nodded in response.

"Not really an invention, more modification and merge of two spells. It's actually a quite fascinating science, the merge and modification of spells, Travers" - Albus explained, his tone taking on the one he probably used with his students at Hogwarts - "It needs to be as precise as potions are. Not every spell is compatible with each other and many of them have a careful balance you need to keep to avoid them exploding your wand" - Albus gave the last flourish with his wand before he stepped back from him until his back touched Gellert's chest.

Travers made some gagging sounds like he wanted to talk but the words were blocked in his throat. Gellert surrounded the omega with his arms, his head resting on Albus' shoulder looking at Travers with interest.

"I take that to choke him with his own air is not the objective of that spell, is it?" - Gellert asked in a mild tone like he didn't care if it was - which he didn't really. He could live with losing whatever information they couldn't figure out from Travers' papers if he could see Albus making this idiot suffer.

Albus shook his head carelessly.

"It isn't. I combined three different spells. One to compel the recipient to remember, it's often used by Aurors to interrogate witnesses" - Albus explained, his cheek resting against Gellert's forehead.

Gellert didn't know if Albus was playing along with Gellert's possessive display to enervate Travers or if he honestly liked to feel Gellert next to him. The two of them had hardly gotten any time to get used to each other and talk about how they wanted to act in public. Not now, and certainly not thirty years ago when Albus's brother's condemning gaze had followed around any time they even hold hands.

Albus, as usual, seemed to guess what was in Gellert's mind because he moved his hand to squeeze the one of his waist. And tilting his head he muttered in Gellert's ear:

"I always want you close, I've always wanted you with me and everyone knowing you were mine and I was yours" - he said softly, just for Gellert's ears.

Gellert felt a shot of possessiveness at Albus' words. He drew Albus more towards him in response and nudged him to continue his explanation. Albus let out a peal of soft laughter and kissing Gellert's again - in the lips this time - continued.

"The second spell is to compel the recipient to tell the truth. It's not the Imperius - we don't want any alarms to be sound if this house is being monitored and the Unforgivable are too easy to detect - but it's been modified to use some of the characteristics of the Imperius. You can consider it as a weaker version of the Curse but optimised to compel the truth so, Because of the narrower focus, it's almost as strong as the Imperius" - Albus continued. Gellert was surprised by this new spell, it would be useful to have something which worked almost as the Imperius but it couldn't be detected as one of the Unforgivable - too many governments had wards to detect those spells.

"I am impressed. You will need to show me more of your research, you have been clearly working on more things than I was expecting. I thought that with your work at Hogwarts and your partnership with Flamel that you wouldn't have much time to spare for new spells. This was one of the things we planned for years ago, wasn't it?" - Gellert asked, his voice reminiscent as it usually got when he thought of the summer they had expended together where they had planned to bring the wizardly world into a new era, with new amazing magic.

They had both felt at the time that their word was becoming stagnant, with little to none new spells, potion recipes, wards or other inventions appearing over the last few centuries. They had planned to lead their people into a new time of discovery.

"It was. And it was always in my mind when I saw Hogwarts' curriculum barely changing year after year. The Ministry always denying any significant change" - he said darkly, looking towards Travers irate again like he held him personally responsible for the Ministry decision. The other wizard choked again in his words. Gellert was intrigued again.

"And why is he choking like that? None of the spells you have mentioned should have that effect" - he observed looking towards the progressively redder wizard before them. Albus' smile was wicked now.

"Of course, we can't have all those spells to work without some balance, can we? There needs to be some escape somewhere or they wouldn't work at all, after all, you can force someone to remember what you are asking and to tell only the truth, but you can't force them to tell you what _you_ what you want. Politicians are very good at saying a whole lot of nothing when answering a question, and sometimes you don't realise their digression until they are long gone. I don't like to lose my time with idiots and their fool attempts to distract me, so I invented the third spell. The third spell compels the recipient to just answer exactly what it's asked. As we haven't made any question just yet, he is choking on his words" - Albus said satisfied by his own brilliance.

And so he should, Gellert let out a burst of delighted laughter at the idea of those spineless politicians unable to give their useless speeches which said nothing and promised even less. He turned the other wizard around and kissed him full in the mouth to try and taste Albus' satisfaction from the source. Albus laughed in response, agreeably letting him manhandle him into place.

"We need to finish with Travers here, and maybe continue with this elsewhere" - Albus muttered against Gellert's lips while his hands contradicted his words, exploring Gellert's broad shoulders. Gellert sighed in response, his mind agreeing but his body revealing. He finally released the omega and rested his forehead against Albus'.

"Travers" - Albus remind him again. Gellert nodded finally, letting go of Albus waist where his arms had surrounded the other wizard without his conscious decision.

The two of them turned again towards Travers, making the other wizard squirm in his seat finally realising the danger of his situation in full.

* * *

Albus took a deep breath at the door of Travers' residence, feeling like he was finally able to breathe after hours. Dealing with politicians had always made Albus feel like he was dealing with something slimy, dirty and unable to feel clean for a while after getting in contact with it.

Travers was the worst of the lot, combining a boundless ambition with a loose set of morals. He was, ironically, a great believer of "The Greater Good" in actions even if he didn't admit it out loud. Albus wondered if he would have managed to get away with what they had found on those papers. The plans were, fortunately, on its earliest stages. Travers had found it difficult to find the resources he needed to implement them. As Albus and Gellert had discovered - and planned to change - there wasn't too many wizards who had both the intellect and the interest to help him with his research. No matter how skilled were the muggles on the other side of the conspiracy, they needed some wizards for it to work. Travers didn't move into the circles which would have allowed him to make discreet contact with those wizards - and Albus would have most definitely paid attention if he started to make regular contact with his colleagues.

Those concerns had been all over the papers, Albus had thought that Travers' plans for him stemmed only from his relationship to Gellert. But those papers made clear that Albus had been a thorn in Travers' side in more than one way.

Gellert opened the door of the residence and stepped out with Albus. Albus turned towards him in question, Gellert nodded calmly.

"The House Elf has been Obliviated. He won't remember our visit, our discoveries or anything to do with this visit" - Gellert stated easily. Albus nodded calmly.

"And Travers? Did you gave him the potion?" - he asked, wondering if he would have felt more guilty about it if Travers hadn't turned to be the treacherous bastard he was.

Gellert wicked smile was enough response, nevertheless, he said:

"I did. He was out almost immediately. That Swooping Evil potion is very useful. He won't remember us, his plans or even many of the things he is supposed to know in his position. I doubt he will last a month with his memory as it is. The best thing is that, by the time it's noticed, the potion will have flushed completely out of his system and it will seem like he has some kind of degenerative disease" - Geller said satisfied - "We will be able to continue with our plans and infiltrate the Ministry. The only problem I can think is that boy of yours Scamander, he may notice the symptoms and ask his brother. I am surprised that the younger one has sent you one of those creatures. I thought he was incredibly protective of them and he knows who you are with now" - Gellert commented.

Albus nodded in response.

"Newt doesn't get involved in politics, his loyalty is to his creatures and to his friends. This little one here, Kappy, is an old friend of mine. Newt has left him in my care before" - Albus explained easily, caressing the small cocoon in his hand.

"Still, he seemed to have chosen a side after Paris. I have been told that he was very fond of that Lestrange girl and she was his brother's fiance" - Gellert observed placing his arm around the omega shoulders and starting to walk away from the house.

The two of them seemed like a common alpha / omega couple and no one appeared to give them a second look. The walked a prudent distance away from Travers' residence to make sure no one could trace their presence at the house if they got suspicious. The small charm in their appearances made sure that no one would remember exactly how they looked.

While they walked towards their Apparition point, they continued their conversation in low voices.

"Leta made her own choice, Newt knows that. She attacked you and you killed her in return. She had joined you willingly even if she changed her opinion after and betrayed you. She wasn't exactly innocent" - Albus considered out loud - "Still, you are right. I think that her loss would have made Newt to chose the Ministry's side if they hadn't acted against me. But Travers is just as guilty of what happened at that raid than you. You purposely riled that crow up, but it was they who attacked first. Knowing that and seeing what Travers wanted to do to me and all omegas... Newt won't help the Ministry now" - Albus declared, convinced.

Gellert thought it through, his mind reaching a conclusion at Albus' words.

"He is an omega too!" - he exclaimed in surprise. Albus' smug smile was enough of an answer for him - "He is hiding as a beta as you were. That is why the two of you are so close, you have been helping him, teaching him to hide" - Gellert concluded.

"I have. Newt wanted to travel, know new places and of course find new creatures and help them, understand them" - Albus commented. Gellert snorted at that and asked.

"And then you sent him to New York and MACUSA. Even if I wasn't impersonating Graves at the time, what were you thinking?" - Gellert asked, and then looked to Albus with more intensity noticing Albus' automatic tensing at Graves' name - "What are you hiding?" - he asked.

Albus hesitated for a moment, his mind sidetracked with something he had been wondering for a while now.

"I never asked and I am guessing you were extensively questioned about it while you were in MACUSA's control but..." - Albus trailed off, wondering if Gellert would tell him the truth. Gellert looked at him curiously and answered the unspoken question.

"Percival Graves is long dead, I kept him for a few weeks for information but it was too risky to keep him alive. What was your relationship with him?" - he asked Albus suspiciously.

Albus hesitated minutely and then admitted.

"I thought something wrong was happening at New York and I believed Newt would have a good chance to figure it out. He is an independent thinker and his methods - unconventional as they are - they are helpful to find information" - Albus explained, he hesitated for a moment before he added - "And I had reasons to think Graves may develop a soft spot for him"

Gellert looked down to him from where he was walking with his arm around him, his face was incredulous.

"Were you trying your hand at matchmaking with your former student? With Percival Graves? That man was a stickler for the rules! I can't believe you would foist him with a bringer of chaos such as Scamander!" - he asked, his voice showing his shock. Albus almost rolled his eyes.

"Percival was clever, upright, driven and forward-thinking. He would have hated Newt's... loosely relationship with the law and his tendency to foster creatures, yes. But I think he would have learnt to live with them and he wouldn't have been against an omega having a career. If he managed to see beyond the obvious and into Newt's self-imposed quest to save his creatures, I think he would have become his best advocate. And he liked redheads" - he commented.

Gellert looked like his blood pressure was reaching the roof, despite the fact that Graves wasn't any threat.

"Did he now? And how do you figure that?" - he asked smoothly although his arm was like iron around Albus' shoulders. Albus' smile turned a bit devilish. He hadn't ever thought of making Gellert jealous, it wasn't his nature and with Gellert's temperament it had the risk of getting someone killed... but with Graves dead, Albus didn't see any risk in admitting the truth.

"He may have made a play for me at some point" - Albus admitted, then he backtracked his thoughts and asked - "Unless you were already impersonating him six years ago at the International Conference of Wizards and Witches" - he conceded.

Gellert denied with a shake of his head.

"That would have been him, yes. I... met him only two years ago, he made a play for you?" - he asked, his voice torn between rage and incredulity. Albus shrugged in response - "I wouldn't have thought that a Ministry minion would have the brain to actually notice anything not covered on paperwork" - Gellert said disgustedly.

Albus looked at him in curiosity while they navigated the streets of London, the muggles around them happily ignorant of the danger in their midst.

"He wasn't that bad. A bit obsessed with rules indeed, but with room to grow, I think. I found him a clever man and I thought he may be good for Newt, but I didn't have any excuse to send him on his way until last year" - Albus admitted slowly.

Gellert shook his head again in denial, clearly going through all he knew about Percival Graves. His eyes narrowed in memory and he stopped in the middle of the street, Albus looked up at him in question.

"He was sending you letters! I remember seeing some correspondence from you and though it was strange he would keep it at his house!" - Gellert exclaimed in surprise - "But those weren't personal letters. I would have noticed that that's why I sent you a letter when I was impersonating him, Graves said that you were interested in the American Aurors' procedures... That's what alerted you!" - he realised.

Albus bit his lip in thought before he admitted.

"So that letter came from you. Ironic that the most professional letter I received from Graves actually came from you" - Albus commented, thinking back on that strange missive which had made him wonder what the hell was happening with Graves. He briefly regretted that he hadn't been faster in sending help. Maybe if he hadn't expended months finding an excuse to send Newt and gone himself... but then, he would have found Gellert there, as Percival Graves, months before what happened in the Ministry would the two of them been able to reconnect as they had?

"What would have you done if I was the one to appear at MACUSA's headquarters?" - Albus wondered out loud. The two of them started to walk again, their heads leaning close to each other. To anyone seeing them, they looked like any other pair of lovers.

"What would have I done if I - impersonating Percival Graves - had seen Albus Dumbledore walk through the corridors of MACUSA?" - Gellert pondered out loud - "I would have asked you for dinner" - he admitted. Albus let out a short laugh. Gellert looked at him questioningly - "You would have found that amusing?" - he asked. Albus nodded in response but he needed a few more moments before he was able to explain, his eyes shining with mirth.

"I would have rejected Graves because I didn't want to encourage him as I was still so gone for you... and all the time it would have been you!" - he explained. Gellert's own face show his amusement.

"I see... It would have been a conundrum certainly. I would have wanted you to say yes, for the pleasure of your company. But at the same time, I don't know if I could have controlled my rage at you accepting Graves' invitation" - Gellert admitted.

Albus shook his head, his eyes still shining.

"That would have been a sight to see. I am not certain how I would have interpreted that" - he admitted distractedly, noticing they had reached the apparition point. Gellert took hold of his arm before he could reach it, bringing him close and kissing him soundly. Albus accepted the kiss with a smile, but he looked up to the alpha in question when they finally separated.

"He wouldn't have accepted Scamander, you know? If he was that obsessed with you, he wouldn't have accepted a water-down version of you" - Gellert said softly against his lips.

Albus was divided between being flattered and offended on behalf of his former student.

"I think the two of them would have made a good match. I always get the impression that Graves knew - or suspected - that I was an omega. And nevertheless, he respected my abilities and intelligence which I don't have to tell you, it's quite uncommon among alphas. I think he could have been good for Newt" - Albus said stubbornly, although he suspected Gellert may have been right. Graves had been uncommonly stubborn and he didn't seem to find Albus' rejections outputting as he took them as Albus' defence mechanism and not a slight towards him.

Gellert's knowing gaze was very telling but he didn't bother to rebate the point, placing his hand at Albus' lower back and leading them to the Apparition point. The two of them apparated away London, their presences no more than a phantom trace in the city. In a few hours, the apparition point would have been used so many times that any trace to be found of Albus and Gellert's presence would be impossible to spot.

* * *

Albus and Gellert Apparated to Nurmengard's main hall within seconds of each other. Gellert took stock of his surroundings making sure that no emergency would have occurred in their absence.

Given the hour of the night - or morning really - no one except for two guards were at the room. The greeted Gellert with a bow of respect, and a second one to his omega as old pureblood were accustomed to do. Gellert had made clear that everyone should treat Albus with the uttermost respect as his omega husband and his partner.

Albus looked around too, nodding to the guards with a smile - which prompted a returning flushed smile from the younger guard, Gellert was quick to notice - and started for the main staircase, looking back towards Gellert in askance. Gellert responded to the unasked question.

"I will join you shortly. I want to make sure that everything is calm and to start our people into investigating these plans of Travers. He didn't seem to have gotten too far but it will be better to round up all the implicated parties before anyone tries to make contact with him and discover he has some memory gaps" - Gellert explained waving him up. He would have liked to have Albus with him, but he looked extremely tired and Gellert remembered he had gone ahead and dealt with Credence's family while Gellert dealt with Aberfoth. Where Gellert had found torturing Aberforth relaxing and calming, he wasn't surprised that Albus hadn't gained that peace from the Muggles.

Albus' gaze was sharp when he hesitated at the stairs. He seemed like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself his eyes getting strangely shuttered. He turned away before Gellert could try to figure out what that look meant, saying over his shoulder.

"I will go to check on Credence then. He is probably already sleeping but I would like to make sure he is alright. I see you later, then" - he said easily, nothing on his voice reflecting the strange pause he had made at the stairs. He walked up quickly, and Gellert soon lost sight of him.

Gellert stayed fixed at his place wondering what he had missed and how to figure out from Albus - which was the most stubborn creature imaginable - what he had been wanting to say at that moment. Turning away towards one of the side doors at the hall, his mind kept pondering the puzzle. Something about that gaze on Albus had looked familiar. He had seen that strange pause before in his mate. He was certain, if he was able to remember the situation, he would understand what Albus had been thinking.

* * *

Albus walked the hall towards Credence's room so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the blonde figure walking towards him from the other side of the hall until Queenie was almost within arms reach.

The younger omega reached out to take Albus' hand almost immediately, her kind blue eyes going wide in response to what she was feeling from Albus.

"Oh! What had happened? You feel so... lost!" - she exclaimed softly, squeezing Albus' hand before she grabbed his arm and detour him firmly towards a side door of the hall. Albus was so surprised to be taken in hand - not many people dared to try and detour him, and even less someone almost twenty years younger - he didn't resist even when Queenie took a small staircase to the next floor and led him into what it was obviously her own set of rooms.

She released Albus' arm and immediately started to move around what Albus recognised was a decently sized kitchen. Albus took the time to look around curiously, wondering if the rooms of the fortress were made to be 'customised' for its inhabitants. He hadn't even thought of changing anything on Gellert's rooms. Partially because they had been focused on other things, partially because he still felt that the rooms were Gellert's and not theirs.

That sobering idea brought his previous thoughts at the forefront of his mind. Queenie, who had prepared a beautiful tea tray, placed it at the cosy kitchen nook and waved him closer. Albus took a seat at one of the chairs and accepted the perfectly prepared tea from the blonde, his mood again sober.

Queenie took the chair next to him and made her own cup before she turned back to him, his clear blue eyes kind and emphatic.

"I am sure it's not as bad as it looks, whatever it is" - she offered softly. Albus absently wondered how she would sound when angry, and what would it take for her to actually get there. He suspected that only things very close to her heart would be able to affect her to that extent. Placing his cup on the table, he focused his gaze on the swirly liquid, wondering if he could trust her if he could trust anyone who was - ultimately - Gellert's people.

Maybe Queenie was able to gleam the turn of his thoughts, but she started with something else.

"We are the only omegas here you know?" - Queenie started to say, her tone a bit sad - "There are less and fewer omegas out there. Maybe, like you, some hide as betas. But still, there is less every year. They were doing some studies at MACUSA. I used to look in them from time to time" - she commented. Albus looked at her interested, his mind diverted from his own problems.

"Does MACUSA has a theory of why is this happening?" - he asked, his mind already coming up and discarding several theories.

"A lot of theories, but no proof to reach any true conclusion" - Queenie said wryly, her tone sounding serious and professional for the first time since Albus had known her. Not that she hadn't been professional, but her cheery temperament usually injected some... homeliness to her attitude.

Albus nodded thoughtfully, already making plans for researching this. It sounded like something else which was amiss in their society. While it was true that omegas weren't 'necessary' for the continuation of their species, it seemed like something else they were losing. That brought other thought to mind.

"What about Muggles? Are they also having fewer omegas?" - he asked curiously. Queenie looked intrigued at the question.

"I haven't seen any study about that. I don't think it even crossed their minds to check" - Albus suppressed a sigh. He would like to say he was surprised by the oversight but it was just another instance of the Wizardly Word blindness.

While he was focused on this new problem, he had almost forgotten the reason Queenie had taken hold of him. She hadn't however.

"You and Mr Grindelwald have seemed to come together very quickly, I know it must be a bit overwhelming. It was the same for me and Jacob" - she said kindly. Albus raised his gaze surprised at the comment, so concentrated he had been on the new problem at hand. He also hadn't been expecting the mention of Jacob. Hesitating for a moment - he hadn't gotten over his doubts of her loyalties - he said.

"Gellert and I met a long time ago, we have been able to overlook those first meeting phases. Not like your young man and you. I heard that the two of you fell in love in barely two days" - Albus observed, trying to divert the conversation of his own relationship. Queenie allowed the digression.

"Oh, but when you know, you know... you know?" - she said a bit whimsically, and she continued stubbornly - "But you two have gone straight into marriage. Even if you have already met each other, you haven't been together for a long time. Not that I don't think you are perfect for each other!" - she rushed to say, like fearing Albus would be offended - "I met Mr Grindelwald before you came here, there was always so much sadness around him! Like he was only doing his duty but getting no pleasure from life!" - she explained.

Albus was so tempted to interrogate her about that, about Gellert's life before he returned. But he wasn't sure he wanted to know, despite Queenie's words, the image of someone rose unbidden in his mind. Queenie's eyes went wide, clearly being able to see that thought, that face.

"Oh!" - her hand went to her mouth in surprise.

Albus lowered his eyes to the table, ashamed of his doubts, of his jealousy, of the whole situation. It had been thirty years and he felt as helpless and unhappy as the seventeen-year-old him had been presented with the same situation. Knowing that, even if it was as he feared, he had no right to say anything. Not when the two of them had been apart for so long. But if Gellert had slept with this woman... Albus didn't know if he could live with the confirmation, not when he was forced to see her every day. He remembered the letters, the doubts they had generated. And once Gellert had left Godric's Hollow, after months and months wondering where he was, if he was alright if he missed Albus as much as Albus missed him... he remembered the first photo he had seen from him after so long.

And who had been behind him at that photo?

Vinda Rosier.

Two days after, Albus accepted the offer to travel to the Mahoutokoro School of Magic in Japan to study for his first Mastery and left Godric's Hollow - and the memories there - for good. He spent almost a year there meeting people before he started to feel as he could survive the separation.

Three weeks after he presented as omega.

* * *

Gellert walked away from the main hall, his mind still focused on Albus' reaction. He still couldn't get out of his head that he had seen him behave like this before. Which was quite a conundrum as they hadn't been back together long enough for him not remembering...

Gellert stopped in the middle of the hallway in realisation. Of course, it wasn't something he had seen recently. Whatever the expression on Albus' face meant, it had happened before. Long ago, when they first met. At _that_ summer.

Gellert started to walk again, a bit more satisfied. Albus and he hadn't gotten into too many true discussions back in that summer - except for the last one, and Gellert could be at least certain that _that_ expression hadn't been what he had seen on Albus' face. Gellert would never forget Albus' brokenhearted expression when he knelt next to his sister's body. So whatever was worrying Albus, it shouldn't be difficult for Gellert to match it to one of the few disagreements they had in those months.

There had a few arguments about the methods they should employ to recruit people to their cause. Gellert favoured the idea of looking for a connection first among the old families while Albus thought they were too closed-minded in their ideas. Besides that, there had been a few more discussion about how they were going to look for the Hallows, and how they would get them from their current owners.

Gellert had actually used Albus' recommended method when he absconded with the Wand, and he had to admit that he had been right in his assessment. While he hadn't been sure that it would be enough to win its loyalty - to steal it without killing its previous owner, but it certainly had, the Wand worked perfectly in his hands - it had kept the attention and his identity as its current owner in the dark for most. That had helped to keep down the idiots who would try to challenge him for it.

Gellert had no problem fighting - and killing - anyone foolish enough to try to take it from him, but he had to admit he didn't want to be forced to fight for it every other day when he had much more important work to be doing.

While he knocked softly with his wand in a side wall, he was still musing. None of those discussions matched Albus' attitude. He had been exasperated and worried respectively about each issue, but Albus' face at the hall hadn't reflected that.

He had seemed worried, but not worried about his safety or Gellert's. And there had been something else, crucial... he had looked... sad, tense like he didn't know if he should fight or give up. There had been a bit of fire in his eyes, but quickly smothered by what looked as... bitterness... and jealousy?

When he looked down into Vinda Rosier's face, opening her room's door to his call, Gellert called himself all kinds of an idiot.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _schwachsinnige_ : idiot, imbecile, mooncalf, mental defective, half-wit


	4. The families we made for each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albus and Gellert finally talk about what has happened in the time they had been apart. Vinda and Queenie become friends. Credence gets finally the family he has always wanted.
> 
> Merlin helps them all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a small change in the last chapter as I realised I had contradicted myself and created a small problem. Albus presented as an omega a year after Gellert and he met for the first time, that would be around 9 months after Gellert left. So I changed the phrase which implied he presented as omega three weeks after Gellert left. I apologise for the confusion.
> 
> I feel that I need to explain Queenie's attitude here but I don't want to spoil it, so let me know if it feels too strange or scattered. She knows what she is doing, even if no one else does! But I don't know how obvious it is.
> 
> Also, this chapted fully got away from me and again I needed to push the final of this part another chapter. I don't know if apologize or not for this, I hope you are enjoying this anyway!
> 
> This work is unbetaed as usual. Sorry for the mistakes, feel free to send me any glaring mistake, or any mistake really I will be happy to fix it.

Albus looked down to Credence's sleeping form with his mind still focused on his talk with Queenie. He had known - since he had presented - that his condition as omega was a difficulty for his independence. With his relationship with Gellert as it was at the moment, and his feelings towards him enduring, Albus had felt unable to confront the reality of other alphas trying to ingratiate themselves to him. He was aware that it was an unfair perception, but it was how it felt to his brokenhearted self.

Queenie's understanding was different from his own. Where he had been hiding his gender, she had always lived as an omega. As such, she had lived from inside what Albus had feared from outside. She had also seen some things and discovered realities Albus hadn't even known existed. And some of those truths were very concerning, and it had nothing to do with what Albus had feared for himself.

That study MACUSA was doing about the decrease of omegas was one of the worst news Albus had heard of late - and that was counting Gellert's visions of a new war - because it told of a more insidious threat that the one they had been fearing and planning against. How can you fight against something you can't see, or touch, or even understand the source? Why were omegas like him and Queenie fading from existence? Were most of them hiding as Albus was? Or it was something more insidious?

Credence's small movement in the bed drew his attention back to the young man who was his nephew and soon would be his blood-son and heir. Was this part of the reason they were losing omegas? Because the omegas were hiding as betas, potentially not having children, and it was the betas who were having descendants making the alpha / omega characteristic rarer and rarer. It was a well-known fact that alpha / omega pairings had more probability of having alpha or omega children than any other pairing.

Albus had known all these facts. He had been aware of the numbers but he hadn't realised that it had started to affect their world like it apparently was. He knew why he had chosen as he had - because of the ridiculous laws around them - but why other omegas were starting to hide? How long that tendency had been in place, and it had been happening long enough for their gender to start to suffer?

Two betas rarely had anything but another beta. That was why traditional families tried for their children to pair only with other alpha / omega. Yes, the concept was denigrating, but it had the basis for all those pure-blood pacts and contracts.

Very despite himself, the thought of a certain pure-blood sprang again into his mind. And a potential pairing for them.

Like his mind had called him into the room, a noise was heard from the door and Albus turned in its direction to see Gellert standing at the threshold, the strength of his mismatched gaze fixed on Albus.

Albus swallowed in response, wondering if he was going to get the answer to the question he had been fearing to ask.

* * *

Vinda opened her eyes with resignation. It seemed clear that she wouldn't be able to find sleep tonight. A quick wave of her wand gave her the time, a bit past four in the morning.

Leaving her bed, which had been barely used for an hour tonight she had spent the first half of the night finishing her duties with the acolytes and then she had been awoken by Gellert arriving - and leaving again - almost without a word. Decided, she picked up her dressing gown and walked towards the breakfast nook. She called for one of the house-elves to bring her a cup of tea and focused her attention again on her Master, trying to understand what had happened.

She had tried to call him back when he had turned around. The brief glimpse she had gotten of his face had left Vinda disconcerted. Guilt mixed with determination. The determination was a familiar look on the Dark Wizard. Vinda hadn't ever met a wizard as convinced - and convincing - of what he was doing and where he was going as Gellert Grindelwald. But, when had ever Vinda seen him looking guilty?

That was the question. What could inspire guilt in a wizard like Grindelwald who had tried to raze Paris to the ground because of his pique with his former lover?

Vinda knew she was just playing a mental game with herself. Who was the only wizard who could inspire Grindelwald into behaving like a five-year-old "pulling pigtails" as the English said?

Albus Dumbledore.

A knock on her door distracted her from her conclusion and brought her focus back into her room. Looking towards the door, she wondered if Grindelwald had decided to return once again for whatever reason which had brought him here in the first place. With that in mind, she quickly rose from her seat and went to the door. However, it was another blonde who had decided to visit her tonight.

"Hi! I am sorry for disturbing you this late, but I couldn't but notice that you weren't sleeping anyway so I..." - Queenie Goldstein started her voice as cheerful and kind as it usually was - never mind the hour of the night, or the morning, really.

"Miss Goldstein" - Vinda said, surprised.

"Queenie, please" - Queenie said immediately, her smile instantaneous. She looked pointedly towards the room and Vinda took a step back, waving her in.

"Please Queenie, enter. As you said, I wasn't sleeping" - she admitted. Queenie entered with a smile of thanks, although she stayed just inside the room next to the door.

Vinda walked back to the table with the tea and offered a cup to Queenie. The blonde shook her head in response.

"Oh no thank you. I've already taken one and I don't want to get even more jittery at this hour" - she said.

"And what is the reason you are awake at this hour, Miss Goldst... Queenie?" - she corrected herself mid-sentence, pouring another cup for herself, more to have something to do than for the wish of more tea.

"It has been a long day and Credence has been restless, I didn't want to leave him alone with all that has happened" - Queenie admitted, her manner easy but her eyes worried.

Vinda nodded in response, she wasn't sure what he had been doing all the day, but when he had returned he had seemed more uncertain than she had ever seen him since he arrived at Nurmengard. Grindelwald and Dumbledore had dropped him and left without any explanation for anyone and Credence had kept to himself except for that walk with Queenie.

Vinda had been watching the boy with concern. She didn't know what to think about the Obscurial boy they had now roaming through the Castle. It seemed like a great risk to take for the dubious advantage they could get from his uncontrolled powers. Grindelwald's original plan seemed to have been to use him against his nemesis, but now he had _married_ that nemesis, Credence's presence seemed even more of a useless threat than before. She hadn't missed the suggestive way Grindelwald had used when touching and talking to the boy, and she wondered what Dumbledore thought of _that_. Or if the Professor actually knew about it. Queenie interrupted her thoughts again.

"Oh, Professor Dumbledore doesn't have anything to worry about that. Mr Grindelwald is not interested in Credence, he just sees him as a boy, you know. And he is his nephew-in-law now anyway" - Queenie said easily.

Vinda looked at her in surprise, not even angry for the blatant mind-reading.

"Nephew? That boy is Dumbledore's nephew?" - she asked, her mind trying to catch up with the new information and fit it with what she knew.

"Yes, the three of them have been working to find out about his family, they are going to blood-adopt him soon, but it was important for Credence to know where he comes and why he ended where he did" - Queenie explained easily.

Vinda didn't know what to think. From the moment word of Dumbledore's incarceration had reached him, Grindelwald had turned his whole focus into securing the former Hogwarts Professor for his own. The morning after their bonding, when he had briefly stepped out to check on the situation with them, he had taken the time to make clear that any attack on Albus Dumbledore would be an attack against him.

Vinda had been aware that the Dark Lord had some kind of past with Dumbledore. When he had first reached out to the pureblood families in the Continent, Vinda had been fascinated and started to correspond with him in her family's name wanting to know more about the older wizard. She had made contact with some of her acquaintances at Dumstrang and their descriptions of the wizard had interested her. In many levels.

After a few months of sporadic letters, he had suddenly appeared at one of her family's balls and Vinda had become even more fascinated by the gorgeous blonde. She hadn't hidden her interest in him but the older wizard had refused her immediately. His manner had been polite but his whole attitude had screamed of his deep rejection to the idea. Vinda would have felt slighted if she hadn't seen the same attitude towards everyone else. She had finally reached the conclusion - as surprising as it was - that he had been suffering from a broken heart.

Over the years she suspected he had discretely slept with other wizards but, if he had, it had never been with someone he would have to deal with under any other circumstance - Vinda actually suspected that he was Obliviating his partners. As for her, she had never repeated the offer, both because she didn't want to repeat the experience of his rebuff - made even more uncomfortable now they worked together - and because her position as his right hand had become more important than her attraction to him. No one had been closer than her to the Dark Lord.

She had believed.

Until she became aware of Albus Dumbledore when he had started to become a name in the Wizardly Word. She now knew that Grindelwald had been always aware of the other wizard, what he was doing, where and with whom. But once his name had become known all over the world as one of the most brilliant wizards of their generation - if not the most - all over the world, people had become aware of him. And Grindelwald had become obsessed - or maybe more _obviously_ so - with him, and his attention hadn't been only because of the other wizard opposition to him.

Oh, Vinda knew some of the other acolytes believed that lie, but she had known better. She had seen Grindelwald crush anyone on his path he found a nuisance. But not, with Dumbledore he had watched him to the point of stalking, planned around him - but never directly against him - and while he named him the greatest threat among his closer circle, he hadn't tried to stir the masses against the other wizard - as he could have done in one of his speeches.

The closest she had seen of Grindelwald planning against Dumbledore had been his obsession with the Obscurial boy, Credence. So knowing now he was actually Dumbledore's _nephew_... Vinda was again in square one trying to understand what that meant.

Queenie had been watching her with care over all this time - reading her mind probably - and she smiled her when her attention returned to her.

"Why have you come here Miss Goldstein?" - she asked. Queenie sighted, forgoing this time from correcting her on her name.

"You learn a lot about people when you are like me, you know?" - she said, her tone sad for once. Vinda raised an eyebrow in response to what she considered an understatement. 

Queenie shook her head in response.

"Besides the obvious. People's thoughts are not always coherent or easy to understand. We don't think in a... linear manner, not like when we are using language. Some people, like Mr Grindelwald, don't even think in just one language and that is when he is not obscuring most of it. Some people like Dumbledore... he can obscure his mind too, and he does. But he is not used to having someone like me, who doesn't need eye-contact to read his mind, so he forgets sometimes. I've seen more of his mind than Grindelwald and it's..." - Queenie looked frustrated while searched for words to explain what she had seen. Vinda listened fascinated - "He is like a burst of brilliance mixed with nonsensical. He can get as fascinated by the wards of the fortress as by my kitchen. He loves everything, his mind is always in the move trying to plan something, discover something new, give a new use to something already useful. I've never seen anyone like him"

Queenie explained and then turned even more serious looking to Vinda with intent.

"His mind only stops when Mr Grindelwald is around. Sometimes, he is talking and Dumbledore just stops and is... just him. His mind is just filled with Grindelwald and what he is doing, and what he means to him. Sometimes he remembers their past together" - Queenie blushed a bit at that before she concluded - "And Mr Grindelwald, the few times he is unguarded is when he looks at Dumbledore. His mind then is clear and bright and he just... thinks of him too"- she finished with a hotter blush.

Vinda felt nonplussed at the other's witch explanation, wondering how that was an answer to her question. Queenie stood from the table, her gaze firm and cleat.

"I don't want to take more of your time" - she announced abruptly. 

Vinda rose with her, her mind still full of questions, disconcerted even more by Queenie's sudden resolution. The younger blonde walked to the door, smiling again.

"I am glad we had this conversation. I feel better now Miss Rosier. I think I will be able to rest, good night" - she said over her shoulder opening the door and leaving the room without a further word.

Vinda stayed at her place next to the table, her mind whirling trying to make sense of the people who had visited her tonight even more bewildered than before.

* * *

Gellert led Albus inside their rooms with a hand on the lower part of his back, his mind still whirling with the realisation he had arrived at a few minutes ago. When he had seen Vinda's face at the door of her room - her expression curious but looking as composed as usual - and he had gotten a vision to the time when they first met in person after he had left his heart behind with Albus at Godric's Hollow.

He had been distracted, heartbroken and completely dedicated to the quest of fulfilling their plans if that was the only thing - with the blood-vow - he had left of Albus. When Vinda Rosier - a young and beautiful pureblood beta - had made a play for him, Gellert had been unable to hide his deep rejection. He knew he had offended the brunette and it had been a miracle that the two of them had been able to get past that embarrassment.

Gellert felt all kinds of fool for having forgotten the fact that Albus had known about Vinda since that summer. Knew and been suspicious of. It had even crossed his mind when he had first reunited with Albus when the other had told him - in his Theseus Scamander's disguise - of his fear that Gellert hadn't been really interested in him, but may have only been using him until a more appropriate - read pureblood - mate could be found. Which wasn't surprising giving the foolish things he had told him when he left to protect his own foolish pride.

When he had first made a long-distance acquaintance with the Rosier's family, Vinda had answered and the two of them had exchanged a few letters. Gellert had felt she could be a good way to get entrance to the pureblood families in the Continent, while Albus had believed she had ulterior motives for her interest in Gellert. Gellert had dismissed it as unfounded jealousy and it could have ended in a serious row if they hadn't been distracted by Gellert's aunt. By the time Vinda's next letter had arrived, Gellert had been away from Godric's Hollow - and from Albus - and it had become a moot point. 

Until Vinda made her offer.

Albus walked inside the room towards the farthest part of it from Gellert. Gellert closed the door behind him before he rested his back against the dark wood, giving Albus his whole attention. Albus stayed at his side of the room, his gaze focused outside and his mind even farther away than that. Gellert left the door and walked to his husband's side, surrounding his waist with his arms and looking out with him. He had feared that the other would refuse the contact, but Albus leaned back against his chest, closing his eyes.

The two of them stayed at that position for a while, with the dark mountains as background. Albus finally sighted and turned in Gellert's arms hiding his face on the alpha's chest before he started to talk.

"The first news I got from you after you left was a photograph in a pureblood's gossip paper, did you know?" - he asked in a low voice.

Gellert squeezed the smaller body against him, his mind already making the connection to what he must have seen. Those first months where he had been taken under the wing of the Rosier's family he had been all over the place making connections. With his own family's indifference - the only reason his father hadn't disinherited had been that he was his only child and he couldn't have others - and his lack of funds he hadn't another choice but to ingratiate himself to the pureblood families. The Rosier were a dark family and the tale of his expulsion of Durmstrang - while it closed other doors for him - ironically made him quite a curiosity between the darker families. Particularly the overblown rumour that he had been expelled for conducting dark experiments on other students.

Gellert had expended almost a decade dancing the tune - quite literally at occasions - of the Rosier's family until he had managed to gather enough followers and funds for his cause and was able to strike out on his own.

"I can imagine there were a few photographs of me, those years" - he admitted out loud. Albus snorted in response, his voice as miserable as it had been all those days ago when Gellert had first talked him looking like Theseus.

"There was, most certainly. Always with the same people on the background. You were clearly getting some attention from the purebloods" - Albus said before his voice got sharper - "There was someone who was always at your side, or in your arm" - he continued, his voice going darker before trying to step back from Gellert's arms. 

Gellert, however, tightened his embrace not wanting for his mate putting any kind of distance between them. Physical or emotional.

"I have never slept with Vinda Rosier" - he asserted, wanting to have that out there at least. Unlike he had felt at seventeen - when he had been offended by Albus' jealousy - after hearing Albus' pained recollection and the doubts he had left him with for so long, Gellert just wanted to soothe that hurt before it could fester any longer.

Albus' surprised eyes flew to his in response to his statement, trying to read the truth in them. Gellert allowed him a few moments to come to terms with it before he continued.

" _Liebe_ , From the moment I left you until I saw you again at that ritual room, my main drive has been to complete the work we startleaveOnce I lost you, our plans and dreams were the only things I had left of you. Not for a moment over the last thirty years I have forgotten you, or have my love for you faded from my mind" - he said seriously under Albus' attentive gaze. 

His mate's beautiful blue eyes didn't left his face and he had stopped trying to put any distance between their bodies. Gellert lowered his eyes to the chain dangling from Albus' neck where their vow rested next to his heart. He placed his hand on it, caressing it lovingly.

"This gave me hope for us. This was an unbreakable tie which linked us together. My heart almost stopped when that... creature stole it from me" - he admitted darkly. 

Albus chuckled softly in response, resting his head again against Gellert's chest.

"It's his nature. He just likes shiny things. It was safe again in my hands soon enough" - he soothed, his voice warm and fond. 

Gellert didn't know how much of his old wounds Gellert's words had healed but he would do his uttermost best to wipe off any doubt on his husband's mind even if he had to reveal every one of his own insecurities to do it. Gellert cradled that beloved head to his own chest, burying his face in the glorious dark red hair of his omega.

"I wasn't sure if you wouldn't try to destroy it" - he admitted, almost inaudible. Albus shuddered in his arms.

"I couldn't even try. I am pretty sure that I would actually need to _want_ it destroyed for even have a chance at it. And that was the last thing I wished, or wish" - Albus said, the bond shining between them at the sincerity of their feelings. 

Gellert let out a relieved sigh. He knew that thirty years of separation and pain couldn't be healed just with a few words, even with the sincerest of the feelings. But he could feel his mate's trust and love over their bond. That was a start. He used his hands to led Albus' face upwards before he declared.

"I have loved just one person in my life and that is you. There is no one more important to me than you and I would burn the world just for a day more with you _liebling_ " - he vowed. 

He waited for Albus admonishment at his pledge but the redhead surprised him by rising to his toes to grant him a soft, loving kiss in response. After a few moments, they parted slightly lips but stayed close enough for their breaths to mix together and Abus whispered against his lips.

"I would do the same" - his soft voice went even softer with his next words - "When I saw you at the papers with Rosier I would have burnt the world just to turn the time back and prevent you from leaving. For two days I went into a frenzy of research. I was convinced that if I found and mastered the Hallows I could turn back time and bring you back to me. I didn't eat or sleep or did anything but looking and looking over every book we had marked as useful" - he confessed.

Gellert felt a constriction on his heart over those words. Even if it had been over thirty years and Albus was clearly alright, he still felt the phantom of fear for what could have happened. Days without sleeping, or eating, alone in that house with only the phantom of his dead sister as a company... Gellert dreaded for what Albus could have done to himself in that mindset. He almost feared to ask, but Albus read his mind as usual.

"Your aunt came to the house and she talked to me. She was kind, she said you wouldn't have wanted for me to destroy myself" - he revealed before he continued with a smile - "And then, she was practical and she said that if you would have wanted it, then you didn't deserve for me to actually do it" - he concluded with a laugh, his voice still reflecting the shock he had felt at her words. Both for her unexpected kindness and also for the implicit knowledge of their relationship that they revealed.

Gellert blinked in shock. After leaving Godric's Hollow he hadn't thought of his well-meaning aunt who had been the only person to give him a place to call home following his expulsion. He had been thankful for her kindness - even if he didn't understand it - but haven't given any thought about what she could have thought of his sudden departure. Or about his relationship with Albus, which she must have been aware of - Gellert recognised - if only because they had been utterly unable to be apart from each other.

"I am glad for her interference" - he said finally, wondering what had become of her and if she would have problems because of her relationship to him. Albus, leading him away from the window and towards the bed, clearly already moving from their previous conversation for the night, answered his thoughts again.

"I was able to send a friend to her after Travers put me in those manacles. She is safe for now with friends and under strong wards. I couldn't leave Travers to take his frustration towards you and me against an innocent woman " - Albus explained while he pushed on Gellert's shoulder to make him sit down at the bed.

Gellert obeyed wordlessly and watched in interest while Albus started to unbutton his shirt. He placed his hands on Albus' hips but stayed quiet and still otherwise, and after a brief hesitation, Albus allowed him the touch and continued stripping from the clothes he had worn at their visit to Travers. A delicious three-piece suit in a conservative black and white which fitted Albus as a glove. Gellert tried to turn his mind back towards their conversation to avoid jumping him here and now.

"I am glad that you took care of her. I hadn't thought she would be in danger because I barely spent three months at her house. And in my mind, that summer was spent with you not her" - he admitted, his hands still in Albus' hips but his fingers moving slowly against the fabric of his trousers. Albus lifted an eyebrow while he took off his shirt, standing bare-chested before Gellert with only their pendant as adornment, resting loosely against his chest. Gellert drew him closer, holding his face against the warm skin, before starting to softly kiss the solid belly.

The slow burn of their arousal was steadily rising and, although Gellert was enjoying this game of distraction they played often - where they kept talking while they were starting to try to get a rise from the other - he was beginning to get more and more distracted by the beautiful body before him. Not even Albus' wicked smile at his victory could prevent Gellert from placing his arms around his omega and bodily dragging the other below him into the bed, his mate's wicked laughter a gift to his ears after the sombre start of their night.

"We will talk more about this. I want to know all about the time we have spent apart. You know everything about my own movements but I suspect that you have been busier than what a simple school teacher should be" - Gellert said, his hands already busy with divesting Albus from the rest of his clothes while the omega did the same with his own.

"You should know there is no such a thing as a simple school teacher, my love" - Albus said absently and brought that discussion to halt by turning Gellert on his back and starting a path with his mouth down his bare chest - Gellert's shirt had miraculously vanished - Albus' hands went ahead of him opening the buttons of Gellert's dark trousers. Gellert decided to leave him had the last word for now.

If only to avoid for him to retract his mouth from more _important_ tasks.

* * *

Albus didn't want to open his eyes when he awoke from an amazing dream where Gellert and he were sailing the Seine in a romantic boat cruise. He didn't know where the dream had come, maybe the discussion from the night before had brought Paris to Albus' mind.

Once he started to take notice of his surroundings, he realized he was lying down on his back with a weight holding him down to the bed. He brought his hands up until he felt the body pinning him down to the mattress. Broad shoulders and spiky hair, his quick hands and mind noticed. Albus didn't need to open his eyes to know it was Gellert above him - he hadn't needed to touch him either, as the bond thrummed around them with their proximity, but he loved to play this game of guessing even with himself and it was always good to have excuses at hand to caress his lover.

With his arms surrounding Gellert's shoulders, he embraced the broad back with his arm, absently following with a hand the curse of the spine, while he caressed the soft white-blonde hair with the other. His mind was already at work, remembering the discussion of the night before and trying to understand all that Gellert had confessed, now he had a few hours of sleep to process it properly.

He wasn't a fool. He had noticed that Gellert had revealed he hadn't slept with _Vinda Rosier_ , nothing - or no one - else. Unlike himself, who had needed to hide his gender from the outside world, Gellert had been free from any duties from the moment he had Apparated away from Godric's Hollow. It was even expected from pureblood Alphas for them to 'play around the field' a bit before they settled down with a nice omega. The muggle morality for women had translated to omegas in the wizardly world as the part who needed to stay 'pure' in the relationship. Like there wasn't a good amount of ways to prevent pregnancy in the Magical World.

Gellert let out a small sigh in his chest, rubbing his face against Albus like he was a big jungle cat. Albus sighed in response combing his fingers through the messy blonde hair where the spikes had gone everywhere during the night. He felt a kiss just above his heart and he smiled against his will.

"You are having far too dark thoughts for this hour of the morning _liebling_ " - Gellert's voice, rough from sleep, vibrated against Albus' chest where he was resting.

Albus' hand stilled momentarily before he resumed his previous touch.

"I am always thinking, you know that" - Albus countered, not wanting to argue.

Gellert rose on his elbows looking down to Albus, his mismatched gaze intent. Albus moved at the new position, leaving his arm fell from Gellert's back and resting his hands on the other's waist, waiting. He wasn't a child to be bullied to talk about something just by someone looking. And he wasn't - and never had been - intimidated by Gellert, the alpha should know better.

Gellert raised his hand to Albus' face, brushing back his hair - a wild mess at this moment - from his face and then cradling Albus' face.

"Something about last night is still worrying you" - Gellert affirmed, certain.

"I am fine Gell..." - Albus started but Gellert stopped him with a finger against his lips.

"You are fine, as you are always fine. Something hurts you and you accept it and keep going. Your brother insults you, your Ministry betrays you... and you are always fine" - Gellert said his tone sharp and his eyes hard before he softened and lowered his head to touch his forehead to Albus' - "I admire that about you. The epitome of the English gentleman, so unruffled by the world. But I don't want for you to be 'fine' when I have done something that hurt you" - Gellert said firmly.

Albus bit his lip in thought, uncertain. As lovely as Gellert's words and the feeling behind them was, Albus didn't know what to say. He was aware that he didn't have the right to expect for Gellert to have been faithful to Albus when they weren't together. It wasn't even unfaithfulness when they hadn't been together, it just felt like that to Albus. It wasn't logical, but it was what Albus felt. While he couldn't avoid how he felt, he could at least avoid making a fool of himself.

Or so he had thought. Gellert had noticed something in his manner which had alerted to Albus' mood. Albus made another attempt to avoid the conversation.

"It was a silly thought, Gellert. Not even worth mentioning it. I don't want to bother you with things that can't be changed" - Albus entreated, looking up to Gellert and trying to convey his sincerity.

"Things that I have done?" - Gellert asked sharply. Albus shut up abruptly. He sometimes forgot how quick Gellert's mind was and how well he knew him. Where among others Albus was always several steps before them, with Gellert he was truly his equal.

Gellert had kept his gaze fixed on Albus, reading every tiny twitch and tic he was unable to avoid making, and working through the problem. His gaze was slightly unfocused while he went through what he knew and tried to find the origin of Albus' mood.

"You were fine yesterday util we reached here and we went different ways" - Gellert mused out loud. Albus watched in silence, fascinated despite himself to see if Gellert would be able to reach the right conclusion. The two of them had played this game before, to try and see if they knew each other well enough to figure out what the other didn't wish to confess - "You were worried about Rosier, I wasn't wrong about that. You have been thinking that I had been with her all this time, even since I left you at Godric's Hollow. That I was planning it even before we parted ways, you implied that much at the Ministry" - Gellert continued.

Albus stayed stubbornly silent trying to avoid giving himself away. Gellert, however, wasn't so easily fooled and it seemed that his very lack of reaction gave him clues.

"You are no longer worried about that. We haven't ever lied to each other, you know I was telling the truth. It's not Vinda who worries you now... Ah" - he exclaimed softly, clearly having reached a conclusion.

He had moved to lay on his side while he talked so he wasn't above Albus' form any longer. Albus took advantage of that and tried to move to the edge of the bed. He really didn't want to have this discussion and if he was, he certainly would need a bit of distance from the other. Gellert didn't allow him to move away, placing a hand on his hip and making Albus froze in place in response, feeling open and vulnerable before Gellert's intense gaze.

"We haven't talked about what we have done while we were apart all those years" - Gellert started slowly, weighing his words - "I told you yesterday that I wanted to know more about what you have done. I was thinking about your discoveries and spells, and the things you have seen and done...." - Gellert trailed off, his face going dark in response to some thought.

Albus hesitated for a moment before he took advantage of the opening. If he was going to talk about this, it would be in his own terms.

"We have spent thirty years apart, we have both had a long time to do many new things" - Abus said cautiously looking away from Gellert before he continued - "And met new people"

Gellert's gaze went even darker and his hold on Albus' hip got tighter.

"And how many of those new people have you met and become... intimately close to _liebling_?" - he asked possessively.

Albus returned his gaze at him a bit incredulous quickly getting incensed at the implication.

"You are asking me this? Gellert! I was hiding as a beta! I barely dared to get close to anyone, much less to get as _intimately_ close as you are insinuating" - Albus said irritated, even more so, when he realized how neatly Gellert had turned the tables on him - "And don't try to pin this on me! It's you the one who has been walking around as all alphas, free as a bird and probably sleeping around with every one of your acolytes! Don't think I haven't noticed the looks that American has been giving you, and me for what it matters" - Albus exploded, although a part of him was feeling embarrassed to sound like a fishwife.

Gellert looked torn between pressing Albus about his own past or defending his own, the two of them were, by now, sitting at the bed and facing each other. Albus had a passing thought that maybe he should put some clothes before continuing this discussion but Gellert answered his accusation before he could decide.

"I am not sleeping with any of my followers, let alone Abernathy. That man is..." - Gellert trailed off with a shudder and Albus got sidetracked wondering what the younger man had done to inspire that reaction. However, he narrowed his eyes undeterred now they were finally having this discussion. Gellert's words weren't the whole story.

"Very well, you are not sleeping with them. But you can't tell me you have been waiting for me to be back all this time. If we are going to talk about this - and I wasn't planning to, you forced this discussion yourself - I want the whole truth. Let's put everything on the table and tell me how many people have _you_ met and become intimately close to?" - Albus asked finally, not daring to breathe or move waiting for Gellert's answer.

The blonde laid back down on the bed his hands behind his head in a nonchalance attitude betrayed by the look of his face: as blank as Albus had ever seen it. Actually, he was surprised, Gellert was usually pretty good at masking his emotions but he usually did this in a more subtle way than blanking his face - which was a dead give away to the fact the other was trying to hide something.

"When I first left Godric's Hollow the last thing on my mind was getting... entangled... with someone else" - Gellert started to say, his voice low and emotionless.

Albus, sitting back against the headboard, stayed silent and waiting for the rest he knew it was coming. He tried to brace himself.

"I spent the first years working with the pureblood families in the Continent, looking for followers and working in our dreams. You were always in my mind Albus. I was angry and hurt, but if you had returned to me I would have welcomed you with open arms. Any time over the course of those years I wanted you with me" - Gellert explained.

Albus felt his eyes going wet at the feeling behind those words. Gellert closed his eyes before he continued.

"I can't lie to you" - he said so low that Albus had difficulties to hear him - "After those first few months, I started to realise that even if we ever met again - and I was convinced we would, our love wasn't something that could be discarded like that - it wouldn't be anytime soon. I could see it with my Sight but there were so many paths where we never returned to each other, Albus" - his voice was was agonising sad - "I couldn't accept that, I never tried to make any connection with someone else. I was sure that at some point we would be back together and wanted no one else at my side but you. So, when I was alone and worried and I just wanted release...." - he trailed off and Albus was almost ready to burst in frustration when he continued - "I went to a stranger and slept with them and then... I Obliviated them" - he concluded.

Albus felt his breath getting knocked out of him at those unexpected words. He had been certain that the other had slept with others in the time they were separated but he was surprised by - and a bit horrified by - Gellert's confession.

And ashamed of himself at the relief he felt. Yes, Gellert had been with other people, that hurt Albus but he had come to terms with it a long time ago he had been expecting that blow. It had been obvious if nothing else when they slept together, that Gellert had... experience. More than he had when they had first come together at seventeen. But at least no one had a claim on him. No one would arrive to make any claims on the Dark wizard as they literally couldn't remember to have been with him.

Albus laid back on the bed at Gellert's side closing his eyes in relief. He felt the other wizard turning in his direction to look at him and he wondered what Gellert was making of the naked relief he was feeling and probably showing on his face. He felt Gellert placing a hand on the side of his face caressing the track of tears on his cheek.

"I am sorry Albus. I wish I could say any different. I was sure that we would be back together eventually and I made certain that no one could be a problem for us. but sometimes, I just needed, I just couldn't be... alone anymore. I needed the illusion of someone else even for a few hours, I never wanted to be unfaithful to you, to us. So I tried to erase any proof of it. Any proof of my... weakness" - Gellert confessed in a rush, his breath warm on Albus' cheek like he was closely monitoring his reactions - which he probably was.

Albus took a deep breath before he opened his eyes to look into those mesmerizing eyes. Grey and brown, both incredible intense, Albus knew that some people considered the other man's strange eyes the first sign of his madness and that something had always been 'wrong' with him. Even his own mother had believed it was the sign of evil and the reason she had become almost paralyzed - and sterile - after Gellert's birth. Albus suspected it had more to do with the fact it had been an arranged marriage and Mrs Grindelwald was not even thirteen at the time of Gellert's _birth!_. He would never accept the woman's discarding of her son but he couldn't fully blame her given the circumstances.

Gellert's worried gaze brought him back to the present and their discussion. He brought up his hand to Gellert's face, forcing his mind to concentrate and looking for the right words. For all Gellert was the Dark Lord, his feelings about Albus were genuine and unmistakable. Albus forced his jealousy out as best as he could before he started his response.

"We weren't together Gell, as much as it hurt both of us. There is not 'unfaithfulness' in what you did as much as it pains me to hear it" - Albus admitted ruefully.

Gellert denied with a shake of his head like he was trying to push away the image.

"They were nothing Al! You don't need to waste another thought on them. Or another tear" - he said wiping away the last of the traces on Albus' face. Albus sighed in response, Gellert was such a child sometimes.

"My mind knows that Gell. I can accept that there, but my heart... I can't avoid thinking about it. I don't blame you, there is no blame on you, we weren't together anymore until a few days ago. You were free to do as you wished. But even knowing this, just thinking about you being with someone else, kissing someone else... just think how it would feel if it was me" - Albus said sadly.

Gellert's rigid expression was an answer by itself. He drew Albus' to his side, his face fighting a snarl at the idea.

"But you weren't, were you? You said you were afraid to get close to others" - Gellert asked, his voice possessive again. Albus had to fight his first childish impulse to make the other as jealous as he had made him, it was such a typical Alpha reaction that he almost couldn't prevent the roll of his eyes. He shook himself before he answered.

"Once I convinced myself that you were really gone and out of my reach, I spent the next few years travelling around trying to... learn, to make a name of myself. I think I felt that I needed to find something of worth in me even if you had never found worth in me" - he raised a finger to Gellert's lips to stop his automatic reply - "I know, now, that you didn't believe me worthless but that was how I felt at the time" - he explained. Gellert nodded with his heart before he talked again.

"You went east that first year, didn't you?" - he asked. Albus rose an eyebrow in surprise and Gellert flushed in response - "I may have been keeping an eye or two on you. I don't know _what_ you were doing there, or your exact movements, but I knew you went somewhere to Japan" - his face went dark again at the thought, visibly frustrated by his inability to track every waking moment of Albus' life. Albus felt his mood lifting a bit when he repressed a laugh.

Albus nodded in response, his mind going back to that first year, remembering.

"I went to Mahoutokoro School of Magic in Japan. The defence teacher there had visited Hogwarts for almost a month in my last year, he had been... scouting different schools, I think, to look for interesting students for an advanced Master class he wanted to make available for the best of the best at the primary schools of the world. He was a well-known master of his subject. I had initially rejected his invitation after what happened to my mother and Ariana, even before you arrived at Godric's Hollow... and he was really understanding - family is really important in Japan - so he gave me an open invitation to visit if I was able to resolve my situation. Once you left, with Ariana's death... I received another invitation, I had initially planned to reject it again, I didn't feel with the strength to focus in a class like that but... I finally accepted" - Albus started.

It was Gellert's turn to listen fascinated at Albus' tale.

And be a bit jealous too.

* * *


	5. New beginings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albus has always been a free soul, and Gellert is going to figure out that much to his blood-pressure detriment. Luckily he is a wizard...
> 
> Credence finally gets the family he deserves and in the meantime, an old friend makes a brief appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few notes in this before I forget:
> 
>   
> For popular petition, I have written a small scene with Newt although the main action with him and the others will be in the next story. I hope you like him!  
> 
> 
> About the blood ritual, I took inspiration in the page "Rituals Albion adoption ritual" in "Dodging Prison & Stealing Witches Wiki" which I had never visited before but it was the best fit for what I was looking. And let me tell you, this was awkward research! I changed the words a bit, and reworked the thing a bit, added my ideas but the base was that page and a lot of the phrasing came from there.
> 
>   
> Completely outside the topic of this fanfic, I think we all know by now that Johnny Depp has been asked to leave his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the FB's movies. Like many people, I was sad to hear this and I hope we can all agree that this is damaging for the series both because of the delay it produces, and the very difficult decision to incorporate in the plot the change of actor. I personally loved him in this role (even if I wasn't sold at the first movie, I thought he looked a bit awful honestly, but he grew on me at the second movie) and I don't know if anyone can follow his acting. I hope that, if they are doing this and I don't think this will change now it's official, they will make Grindelwald so heavily damaged by the dark arts that he is burned, inhuman, whatever, and it can be an actor under a lot of makeup like it happened with Voldemort. I don't want another face for Gellert, a Graves situation or a Dumbledore repetition, or anything like that. I think it still will lack Johnny's flair, movements, etc but at least we can be spared from some ridiculous sub-plot we all know it's only there to try and fit the change of actor.  
> 
> 
> I am happy to hear any opinions, as long as they are polite. I am curious to know what the people who ship this pairing think, to be honest. We all are entitled to our own opinions, and I will be happy to talk about it as long as we are all aware that, at the end of the day, that is what they are, opinions. There are only two people in the world who know the truth about what happened and they are not going to express it here (although it would be hilarious if they did!). That is all I have to say, except for joining the petition for 2020 to end once for all and 2021 be a better year. Seriously, urg.  
> 
> 
> My interest in writing these fics stays the same and I will be keeping with the next episode of this series as planned and probably other fics outside these stories but with Gellert/Albus pairing. For me, Gellert will be described as played in the movies out so far, both young and older actors, although everyone is free to picture him as they wish, of course. Which we all already were free to do in any case. I know, as much as I love Jude Law, that I usually picture Albus as a redhead with Jude face of course.
> 
> Unbetaed as usual. I am happy to correct any mistakes if you pointed them out to me!

Gellert took a sip into the coffee cup he was holding looking up to Albus in question.

Albus smiled while sipping calmly his cup of tea. The other man had asked for food before they got into his own story and Gellert had called the elves for breakfast while he waited impatiently for the story to come. He wasn't certain what to expect from Albus' tale. He had kept a discrete eye on the other wizard all those years but, particularly at the beginning, he knew he had missed quite a lot.

From Albus' veiled comments he expected he wouldn't need to kill any foolish Alpha. The other man had been too worried hiding his secondary gender to be able to get involved with someone else, and the more selfish part of Gellert was happy to know that. But that didn't mean Albus hadn't _wanted_ , liked them enough to maybe contemplate to trust them. 

The Graves situation was a good example of that. Gellert hadn't missed the fond way Albus had talked about the American Auror or the fact he had stayed in contact with him even when he didn't accept his invitations. Would he have, at some point, trusted the other wizard with his secret? He seemed to think that he had, at the very least, suspected what he was.

The Flamels were other mystery in Albus' past. Gellert didn't suspect them of wanting the omega, he had gotten the impression that their interest was mostly familiar than anything else, but Albus had spent long periods with the couple and even worked with Nicolas Flamel in some of his works. Given how reclusive the two of them had become over the last two centuries, Gellert was dying to know how his Albus had managed to meet them and charm them like that.

Right now, the little shit wasn't being all that charming showing a mysterious smile while slowly picking up and eating his breakfast.

"Are you feeling better now? Less famished?" - he asked his love extra-politely.

"Oh!" - Albus said innocently looking down at his cup before raising his eyes to look at Gellert under his lashes - "Yes, I am feeling better now. All that work we have been doing those past days, this was just what I needed" - Albus smiled, his beautiful blue eyes shining with mischievous cheer.

Gellert wondered how he had lived without this man all those years and he had to repress the impulse to pick him up and take him back to bed to show him how much he loved him and had missed him. Something on his face must have clued Albus of his feelings because he softened visibly and offered Gellert his hand.

Gellert brought the soft hand to his mouth and kissed the inner wrist before placing it at his face, locking his eyes on those gentle blue ones. For all he was an amazing wizard, powerful and brave, Albus still had that gentle omega demeanour that Gellert couldn't believe he could have ever hidden as a beta. He focused his attention back into the omega when he started to talk, putting his cutlery aside.

"You were waiting for me to tell you about my past. What I did after you left" - Albus started. Gellert nodded in response eagerly, his whole attention focused on Albus' words while he cradled his hand to his cheek. Albus smiled a bit again, his fingers fluttering in Gellert's cheek, caressing him softly. His voice turned dreamy while he started - _finally!_ \- to talk, first hesitatingly, stopping between phrases like he was still troubled by what he was relating. Then growing stronger with Gellert sending his undying love over their bond.

"As I told you yesterday, the first days after you left are just a blur until your aunt came to me. She helped me to... focus. To return to my old self and to find a new focus. A new perspective. Once she left again, I tried to come with a new plan. You were out of my reach and even before seeing the photo of you with Rosier I feared that not only the physical distance would soon divide us. Given some of the things you said to me I didn't expect it would be long before you went to someone else, even bond with them" - he confessed sadly, his voice going softer.

Gellert placed his other hand on Albus' free one at the table, squeezing it softly like he could reach that eighteen-year-old-Albus through the current one. The present-Albus smiled and brought Gellert's hands to his mouth to kiss it before he returned it to the table and interlacing their fingers.

Then he continued, his voice strong again.

"I have just received Master Keiko Sato's Japanese scops owl with his renewed invitation to his lectures. It was... very tempting to be able to leave that house and even the country. To get to a place where no one would care to ask about my family... or about you. And where I was unlikely to find any... announcement about you in gossips magazines, do you know that they were speculating about your engagement to Rosier in that paper?" - he asked, his hands tensing a bit where Gellert cradled both of them.

He shrugged in response, he hadn't paid attention to that. Albus sighed in response, still irritated.

"Well, they did although I would see that later, it was what I was expecting sooner or later. Back to Master Sato, I was very happy to escape that kind speculation and accept his offer. To be honest, I was almost certain when I left for Mahoutokoro that I would return to the news of your wedding. I was relieved to have a bit of time to come to terms with that" - Albus confessed. Gellert interceded then, unable to stay silent at that.

"There is one person alone I have planned to marry and that is you _liebe_. That gossip rags are not worth the paper they are printed and should be shut down. I may do this" - he considered. Albus laughed in response, his mood lifting a bit.

"You would be acclaimed as a saviour or named as the darkest Lord ever been born if you did. Depending on who you asked" - he retorted amused before he turned serious again - "Mahoutokoro is an amazing place. I mean, I love Hogwarts, it was all I could have wanted in a school" - he amended before continuing - "But Mahoutokoro stole a part of my soul I didn't know I have. The peace and history you could feel in its stone, in its roots... it was exactly what I needed at that point" - Albus explained.

Gellert could feel Albus' remembered peace in his voice and felt torn between sharing that happiness and peace he had reached there and bothered that he had found it without him. Albus seemed to understand that because he rose from his chair to Gellert's side and sat in his lap in a smooth movement, softly kissing his lips while his mind opened to Gellert''s.

And Gellert was almost overwhelmed by the intimate contact of that brilliant mind with his own.

It wasn't a sharing of memories, neither Albus nor Gellert were using Legilimency. It was something different, something beautiful. Gellert realised that Albus was trying to use their bond - which neither of them had a lot experience with except by the theory they had read about alpha/omega bonds - to share what he had _felt_ when arriving at Mahoutokoro.

Gellert felt his breath caught at his throat at what he was feeling from Albus. At the same time, Albus was physically stealing his breath with his kiss. His mind was divided between the soft lips exploring his mouth and the brilliant mind merged with his own. While an exploring tongue was slipping into his mouth, he could feel the bright light and peace that Albus had felt when he touched Mahoutokoro's walls, stepped into its halls. His hands slipped around Albus' waist creeping up his back to keep him flush against him. They finally parted from their kiss and Albus rested his forehead against Gellert's.

"My first thought when I first arrived there it was... how much I wished I could share it with you" - Albus confessed - "All the time we were together, we talked about travelling - to look for the Hallows and start our revolution - but we didn't have a planned destination. Mahoutokoro didn't have anything to do with the Hallows. Japan wasn't a place where we were planning to start our... search for contacts. My wish to share it had nothing to do with our plans or our dreams. It was only a wonderful place, full of all the magic and history we wanted to preserve" - he exhaled melancholically.

Albus' strong reaction to the memory arose the same wish in Gellert. He tightened his arms around the slim waist in answer, his mind already working how they could pull that off. Albus seemed to read his mind and he laughed fondly, kissing Gellert's forehead.

"I am sure we can visit sometime. Professor Sato offered me an open invitation to return" - he said.

"We will have to take him up to that soon. I have never travelled that way and I would love to visit it with you" - Gellert said firmly - "But tell me more about that place, what did you learn there and who did you meet?" - he asked curiously. Albus lent back against the table at his back, his smile back in his face.

"I met the best potential wizards - for defence - Professor Sato could find. And not only from our generation, Professor Sato likes to keep an eye on his former pupils over time. And some of them return for a refresh course or to help the Professor with some practical exercises" - Albus explained, his tone fond and a bit smug. Gellert narrowed his eyes in response, his agile mind already going over the names he knew.

"Zhou? Cresswell? Vesseau?" - he asked, going through several well-known experts who he knew were linked with Albus' name. Albus laughed again shaking his head.

"I met Cresswell at the International Conferences, not at Mahoutokoro. I think he is more into the theory than practical application" - Albus explained. Gellert guessed from the clarification than the other two he _had met_ at that school.

"So you went there, went to that defence program, made some important contacts apparently..." - he said raising an eyebrow in question. Albus nodded in agreement - "You were there... over a year if I'm not mistaken. It was there where you presented wasn't it?" - he asked softly, his mind still stuck at the thought his omega had presented an _exact_ year after they met.

It was such a beautiful concept and something new generations had almost forgotten - the idea of the perfect alpha / omega relationship where the omega waited for his perfect alpha to present, a year after their meeting, it was weird but not unheard - Gellert had loved to know that. Except for the part where they had been miles apart and how painful it must have been for his Albus in that circumstance.

"It was. The course was finishing by then and I was getting ready for returning home. I had been talking with Dippet and h had offered me a position as an assistant at Hogwarts for the next year. It seemed such a good deal and a way forward for me, returning to the only _other_ place I had ever felt happy and like I fit" - he admitted with a shrug. 

"Did you consider to... reach out at me then?" - he asked softly, hesitating. By Albus' bitter smile he knew his instincts were right and he wasn't going to like the answer to that question.

"I had been... looking over the paper, reading the news and getting ready for what had happened at home over the previous year... two days before I presented as omega I saw that photo of you with Rosier. It... didn't cross my mind that I would be welcome" - he said, his tone controlled but Gellert could see how much it was costing him to keep his cool while remembering.

Gellert cursed out loud at the confession. He couldn't have known how much Rosier and her family's little schemes had costed him. He had known they were trying to force his hand when they published all those statements to the papers and sneaked those photos to the rags. He had, at the time, though it worth it for the support they gave him and the connections he was making among the pureblood.

But now, with almost Seer-like certainty, he knew if he hadn't succumbed to that trap - to trade the illusion of the Rosiers to make a match for her daughter for the introductions he needed for his cause - and Albus hadn't seen what he thought it was the confirmation of Gellert having moved on... that the other would have - at least - reached out to him. They would have met in some neutral location and, without Aberforth's hateful presence, with the fresh pain of their separation... they would have reconciled.

Albus drew Gellert's attention back to him with a loving kiss to his forehead first and then to his cheek, before finally kissing his mouth lovingly.

"Gell, love. You can't think like that. You need to let go of that, you will go crazy otherwise. It pains me, more than anything, to think of all the time we have lost. To know I wasn't there to see the boy I met and fell in love at seventeen to grow into the man you are now. But do you know? When I looked into the mirror of Erised, it was you who I saw. First, it was you at seventeen and then the image morphed into you now. It has always been you, and it would have remained your image in ten more years, a hundred or wherever as long I lived without you if we had never met again in this life" - Albus said, his voice soothing while he caressed his face tenderly, bringing him back to the present.

He sighed in response, caressing the blood-vow hanging from Albus' neck while he considered his words. He knew his love was right as usual. He finally nodded his assent drawing Albus back for a quick kiss before he placed his arms around him setting him to his taste, sideways in his lap and placing his chin on Albus' shoulder where he kissed the tempting neck before he said.

"Very well. I will try not to dwell in that. But you need to tell continue with your tale. Don't you think I have forgotten! You have only talked about that first year and there are other twenty-nine more years to talk about" - he said.

Albus cocked an eyebrow sardonically in response.

"Very well, I will continue although the delay was not my fault" - he observed placing his arm around Gellert's neck for support before his look turned pensive, trying to remember thirty years into the past.

"By the time the course ended and I was ready to leave Japan, it was around the second week of July. Dippet had offered me a place in Hogwarts and I had accepted, of course. But the classes, as you know, don't start until the first of September and, as an assistant teacher, I didn't need to be at Hogwarts until the last week of August. So, with that in mind, I decided to accept one of my new friends' offer of visiting her family in Australia. She had been telling me of a very interesting species of dragons native to the area, apparently, they had some strange-coloured blood...." - Albus continued his tale.

Gellert was already feeling his blood pressure rising again.

* * *

Newt looked down at the small baby-niffler in his hands who was distractedly trying to reach for the colourful mantel on his brother's table. The delicate embroidery at the edges, with its golden-like appearance - was it that real gold? - were fascinating for the small creature. His distraction was allowing Newt to examine his development to write his next chapter on nifflers and their growth rate.

"If he manages to grab into that, will he be able to draw the whole mantel into his pouch?" - Theseus' voice asked from behind Newt.

"Probably not, despite a niffler's pouch being almost ten-times their size in their adult development, when they are younger it seems to be not even double their size. I think this is because they need to focus on survival more than creating a nest. That is part of their more adult... needs" - Newt responded absently while casting a few spells on the small creature and taking notes on his weight, temperature and volume.

His brother walked around the room, picking up things distractedly and returning them to their place immediately. Newt stayed silent while he continued writing in his notebook keeping a wary eye on the older man.

Not for the first time, Newt felt at loss to understand a fellow human's feelings and reactions. When Newt was among his beasts he felt he was able to understand their needs most of the time - and had a good idea of how to act the times he wasn't certain for the reasons of their behaviour - with other humans, however, Newt felt out of his depth all the time. Even with his brother - maybe especially with Theseus - after all their lives together, he didn't know how to help him after the loss of Leta.

And Leta was a complete can of worms by herself. Newt had been genuinely happy to know that his brother had finally found someone that he felt he could be happy with, even if a bit surprised by the speed of their engagement. But when Theseus had told him the name of the witch he had gotten engaged... Newt hadn't known how to react, and the fact Theseus had chosen to spring his news on him in public, and with Leta and the rest of the world in attendance, at his book-signing event... Well, Newt felt the following six months of excuses to avoid the two of them shouldn't have been surprising.

Leta hadn't agreed. She had been hounding him for weeks trying to convince him to spend time with his brother and with her. Newt wasn't certain what to think about that. He knew that his reactions weren't always _in sync_ with the rest of the world. He wasn't _good_ with people but that doesn't make him ignorant. He knew other people reacted differently to him, or that he reacted differently to other people. But he didn't know how to act otherwise.

And he didn't have any close enough friends to ask. The closest he had was Bunty, his assistant, and he had only known her for a few months. He had met her at the same book-signing that his brother had told him of his fiancee's name. Their relationship, while friendly, was mainly professional. He hadn't felt comfortable asking the younger woman about something so personal.

Perhaps if Jacob had been available at the time he could have asked him. The muggle seemed to have a much better grasp than Newt about life and personal relationships. Newt was certain that the muggle would have gotten good advice about how he should react to his older brother's engagement to the only woman he had loved - before meeting Tina - and the girl who had been stringing him along and let him take the fall for her, cutting all ties with him after his expulsion until the time he had met her again at that shop at his brother's side.

Theseus sitting in front of him at the table brought him back to the present. He looked up from the notebook into his brother's sleep-deprived gaze, surprised. He hadn't expected that his brother had something to tell him, over the last few weeks he had been wandering around barely talking. When Theseus saw he had his attention, he started to talk.

"I received a note from the Ministry yesterday" - Theseus said, his voice firm and his face serious. Newt frowned in response to the unexpected comment.

"A note? They expect you to come back this soon?"- he asked innocently although he suspected he knew the reason for the Ministry reaching for his brother. He had been fielding quite a few of those notes over the last few days. Clearly, some Ministry minion had wised up and decided to send the next note to Theseus' instead of only to the house he was staying.

"Yes, it was a very strange note. It seemed like I lacked the context for what they were talking about. Maybe you will be able to shed some light in this matter?" - Theseus asked wryly taking out a folded parchment and passing it over to Newt.

Newt took it grudgingly and open it already guessing what it said. He went quickly past the greetings and looked briefly to the signature - not Travers fortunately, some Auror Newt vaguely remembered as a friend of his brother at Hogwarts - before focusing on the more important sentences.

_  
...the fact Grindelwald knew enough about you to impersonate you is a matter of concern for the Ministry. Your continued absence is another question and the lack of response to their summons. Your little brother has made clear that you are owed the full time for your mourning. We all understand that the loss of Le..._

_...I would urge you to come and take control of the situation. Many of us stand behind you and will defend you before the likes of Travers. He is quickly losing support no matter how he tries to sweep what happened under the rug. Dumbledore is well-known and well-loved for many of us who studied with him at Hogwarts, and while the rumours of his involvement with Grindelwald - spread by Travers' people - sound true, he was incarcerated by the Ministry without any real reason! He is a civilian! He has no obligation to fight, no matter how powerful he is or the reasons he had to stay away, many are still incensed, and with he being an omega it only ma..._

_...that brother of yours. I wouldn't have imagined that he would be so protective of anything besides one of his beasts. Shows what I know of Hufflepuff. There is a reason they are the house known by their loyalty...  
_

Newt returned the letter to his brother with a shrug. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, that James fellow seemed to be a genuinely concerned friend and not one of those schemers who were trying to take advantage of Theseus' state of mind for their ends.

"It seems pretty clear to me. Your friend seems to be a nice enough guy, I suppose he had a way to send you the letters directly..." - Newt started before Theseus interrupted him.

"Yes, yes. He is the best. I think he admires you. But I would like to know what you have been doing and what you have been answering in my behalf" - Theseus lift a hand to stop any protest - "I know I haven't been myself the last few weeks and that you have been doing what you thought it was for the best, and letting me to.. come to terms with what happened. But I am better now and I need to know how much damage control I need to do" - Theseus concluded.

Newt looked sceptically at him, with the rumpled clothes he was wearing and the unkempt hair. He gestured to the newly folded note with another shrug.

"You read it there. I wasn't..." - he trailed off for a moment when Tina entered the room before continuing - "I wasn't going to allow them to harass you when you weren't at your best. You are not the only Auror around the Ministry. They can stand a few days without you" - he declared stubbornly. Tina had hesitated at the door but Newt sent her a pleading gaze and she came at his side of the table. Theseus nodded in her direction as polite and respectful as he usually was with the American Auror. Newt suspected that his brother didn't know what to make of Tina - and what had happened with her sister - but Newt had invited her and the rest to stay with them at his - Theseus' - place and Theseus had been too out of it to make any questions.

Now, it seemed he had a few.

"Ms Goldstein, I am afraid that I haven't been a good host for you" - Theseus said apologetically. Tina shrugged off the apology.

"It's understandable Mr Scamander. You didn't have much of a choice when Newt invited us here, it is us who should apologise to you for imposing in your home, and in your time of grief" - Tina said kindly, her face covering the sincerity of her words. Newt moved uncomfortably in his seat at the conversation, absently stopping Pistachio - the small grey baby-niffler - from grabbing the mantel again.

Theseus returned his gaze to him again, the fond smile in his face reminding Newt of the times when his brother helped him to hide some animal or other from their parents. Despite his mother's occupation had inspired him on his love for protecting beast, she hadn't been happy to find her five-year-old trying to heal and hide an ashwinder in the barn.

"I am sure that Newt didn't give you a lot of choices if I know my brother" - he commented and then he tapped the paper still in the table - "But I am still a bit confused about some of this"- he said - "What did James mean about Grindelwald?"- he asked darkly. Tina took a seat next to Newt as a show of support.

Newt forced himself not to react to the question, his eyes focused on the paper while his mind raced. He had been expecting this issue to come up for days now since the news of Dumbledore's disappearance and the Ministry attempt to bury it up had started to circulate. In his hands, Pistacho seemed to notice his tension and looked up to him cutely. Newt couldn't avoid the smile stretching his lips in response and he felt his resolution restored. He raised his eyes, fixing his gaze on his brother's right shoulder before he started to explain.

"There was some kind of ritual at one of the Ministry's locations. It was very hush-hush but apparently, they decided to use the Matchmaker Table" - Newt explained.

Theseus let out a curse in response.

"The Matchmaker Table? That artefact is an ancient fraud! I am sure that some ancient prankster is laughing us from death for so many people who had fallen in the trap!"

"Apparently, Travers wanted to use the... precedent of its use to force a bonding with Professor Dumbledore to someone he felt he could control" - Newt explained.

"And what does that has to do with Grindelwald? Don't tell me he appeared at the ritual room and killed Dumbledore while he was still bound?" - he asked, looking alarmed for the first time.

Newt looked at him in curiosity. His brother had always seemed to have a very peculiar attitude towards Dumbledore, never knowing if he liked him or hated him. He had been suspicious of him and his attention to Newt like he thought he wanted something _else_ from his brother. Which was ridiculous. Dumbledore's attitude with Newt had always been protective like an older relative and mentor-like, and the fact the older omega had helped Newt to make his way into the world had gained him Newt's forever loyalty.

Newt had long suspected there was something else in his brother's attitude but he hadn't dared to ask any of them.

"Grindelwald appeared into the ritual room, but no one knew it was him. He managed to enter as a 'contestant' for Dumbledore's... hand?" - he said, a bit confused as the whole thing sounded as medieval as anything Newt had ever heard of before he continued - "The Table marked him as the winner and he absconded with Professor Dumbledore - as his newly bonded husband - while his followers destroyed the room, including that absurd Table" - he finished his explanation in a rush.

Tina nodded in agreement with Newt explanation before adding her explanation.

"The Ministry is trying to hide what happened to the public, but it has been leaked anyway. They are denying it anyway, but as they can't produce Professor Dumbledore and it's well known he had been 'detained' by the Ministry... well it isn't looking good for Mr Travers" - Tina explained with a vague gesture.

"What did James meant when he said Grindelwald was impersonating me? Do you mean to tell me that he entered that 'contest' like me? That people believed that I would jump to the chance to marry Professor Dumbledore so soon after my fiancee's death?" - he asked outraged. Newt exchanged a look with Tina - noticing the 'so soon' clarification - before he answered tentatively.

"I don't think there were many people there who knew you well enough. The names of the 'potentials' haven't been released - they aren't even admitting what has been happening to start with - but the rumour is that many of them were among the Sacred Twenty-Eight. You may have met some of them but I don't think any of them knows you well enough to... spot anything weird" - Newt said hesitatingly.

Theseus shook his head in response, still angered at the situation. Newt dared to look sideways to Tina and saw her own semblance to relax a bit. Theseus next words made them tense again.

"But how did that bastard know that I was invited to the ceremony but wouldn't be there?" - he asked disconcerted.

Newt forced himself to stay calm and focused. He wasn't good at many things related to human-human interactions, he was awkward, nervous and tended to babble a lot - as he did sometimes with Tina or Jacob - or be at a loss of words - as it usually happened with Ministry workers - depending on the situation. So people tended to think of him as someone unable to lie.

Which... wasn't true. Newt lied his way out of trouble all the time. Lied about the danger his creatures were - although he maintained that the danger _humans_ were for his beasts was considerably higher than the other way around - lied about what he was doing while smuggling out - rescuing - some snake eggs, and a long etc. It was also very good that he never made eye-contact if he could help it so no one thought anything was out of the ordinary when he didn't look up while lying through his teeth.

"He probably had someone inside who told him about the ceremony and Dumbledore's presence. It wouldn't have too difficult to get the list of the people involved and they probably intercepted my letters asking them to leave us alone, so he must have figured out you wouldn't go. Maybe he had someone watching out for your arrival and they would have stopped you from going in if you had arrived unexpectedly" - he speculated. He knew the truth, but that wasn't something he was ready to share with his grieving brother. He didn't think Theseus would understand the reasoning for his actions.

Or forgive him for them.

Theseus seemed convinced by the explanation and nodded with his head while raising from the table.

"I guess you are right, that bastard seemed pretty good at guessing people's reactions and work around them" - Theseus admitted his tone even a bit admiring. He placed a gentle hand on Newt's shoulder, briefly, before letting go - "And thank you for what you did Newt. I won't say it was the right thing to do leave in the dark about the Ministry's... summings, but I appreciate that you were trying to protect me" - he said before leaving the kitchen and walking back to the upper floor of the house where his bedroom was placed.

Newt left out a brief sigh of relief when he was out of sight looking at Tina in question.

Tina rose from her seat and walked to the kitchen's door, closing it after making sure that Theseus was really out of sight. She raised an Auror's privacy guard regardless before she turned back in Newt's direction.

"He seems to have returned to his room. He looked better today, he even recognised me and talked to me instead of looking like I was part of the furniture" - Tina said with false cheer. Newt smiled back in response at her kind effort, finally lowering poor Pistacho to Dougal's hands, who had appeared when he opened his suitcase. He thanked the Demiguise before closing the latch and looking up to Tina again.

"He is still very distracted. He wouldn't have let go that thing with Grindelwald otherwise. Particularly after what happened with Leta" - he admitted.

"What do you think will happen if..." - Tina started to ask, looking back towards the door nervously, despite the privacy ward.

"If he discovers I was the one to inform Grindelwald about Dumbledore's whereabouts and what was happening with him?" - Newt finished for her. Tina nodded with a small grimace. Newt shrugged in response.

"I don't know what he will do" - he admitted easily, calmer than he felt - "But I did what I felt it was right and I will take the consequences" - he said firmly convinced his gaze fixed in the window to the world outside.

Tina took his hand in silent support her gaze lost in memories, probably both of them wondering what was happening in Nurmengard where their friends and family were now with the german Dark Lord.

And wondering if they would see them again.

* * *

Albus was feeling so very tired. Despite spending most of the day at their rooms lying around or sitting at the table of the sofa, he felt like he had gone ten rounds against a professional interrogator. He now understood how the police were sometimes able to get confessions out of the most hardened criminals. Albus was almost ready to confess any wrongdoing just to be left alone with his thoughts for a few hours.

Gellert had been endlessly grilling Albus about every little detail he had gone through over the last thirty years from the moment he had left Godric's Hollow to the day they had met again at the ritual room. His many masteries, his travels abroad, from studies with Nicolas to his students at Hogwarts Gellert wanted to know everything. If it wasn't for the honest interest in Gellert's eyes and the proud look in his eyes for every one of Albus' accomplishments he would have sent his to hell hours ago.

Of course, there was also the possessiveness and jealousy.

Albus wasn't free of that fault - he was aware enough to admit that - but he believed he was reasonable enough to need at least some reason to feel jealous. He had been jealous of Vinda Rosier because she had been endlessly writing Gellert while they were still together, asking him about his family, his preferences, his likes and dislikes. And all that when he had only been reaching for the Rosiers looking for an introduction to the pureblood families in the Continent. Albus had felt that her interest was more personal than intellectual. That it had more to do with Gellert's looks - she had admitted she had seen him in some schoolmates photos - than with his ideas. She had been endlessly offering for him to come to her family house as a guest and to 'attend some meeting as her escort'. Albus didn't believe he was being unreasonable by being jealous of the beautiful French witch. He wasn't certain, even now, about how he should act around her. She had been wary of him, not exactly unwelcome but mostly trying to ignore him or treating him as just some lowly omega. Albus and Gellert had been too busy over the last few days for him to take offence at her attitude or decide how to react, but he knew he would need to do something about it sooner or later. Besides the brunette witch, Albus felt pangs of jealousy about all the anonymous sex-partners Gellert had admitted having over the years. It mollified him a bit - as horrible as he felt for admitting it - that they hadn't memory of Gellert or what had happened between them, with Gellert's memory spells. But Gellert remembered them and Albus had to live with that, whatever he liked it or not. He only hoped he would never be aware of any of them in person. He suspected that Gellert would make certain of it and that was all he could do.

Gellert, on the other hand, needed little excuse to feel and act jealous. He needed nothing more than hearing someone had been around Albus, no matter their sex, designation, marital status, age or preferences to feel jealous of them. Murderously jealous, if Albus was any judge of his reactions. He had almost killed Theseus and Newt because he had read that Albus had defended his former student _when he was sixteen_ and with them burned down an entire city in his anger. Albus was a bit... disconcerted by the situation. He was aware that his love was a Dark wizard and that he had no problem with murder and mayhem. Albus wasn't so inclined.... however, he had spent the past thirty years trying to change their society in a pacific way, without success. The combination of his love for Gellert with the conviction that the future Gellert was glimpsing with his Sight was something they needed to fight, gave him the push he needed to find a middle ground between their different approaches.

However, that didn't excuse his lover tendency to try and eliminate anyone who seemed the least interested in Albus. Albus suspected that Gellert had already compiled a lengthy list of people he wanted to have... a closer conversation with, based on what Albus had unconsciously revealed.

Albus let out a sigh at the thought. He expected he would need to send a few letters warning some of his friends to lay low for a while if they didn't want to die a horrible death.

"Why the sigh _liebling_?" - Gellert asked while laying down at the bed next to him and drawing Albus to his chest to kiss him. Albus allowed him to draw him near placing his arms around the blonde's neck with another sigh. Gellert felt and smelt amazing, he had just returned from the bathroom where he had gone to shower an hour ago, a luxury that muggles still hadn't available for everyone but that wizards had built in their homes for two centuries.

"It has been a long week. For all this was supposed to be our honeymoon but we have spent most of it trying to settle things with my family" - Albus diverted, laying his head on Gellert's chest. Gellert combed his finger through Albus' growing red hair looking pensive. 

"I don't care about my own family so, of course, it would be yours we would need to deal with. Credence is ours now, so we needed to settle that as soon as possible" - Gellert affirmed easily - "The adoption ritual is ready and I have sent the notes to all the participants for them to be ready. In two days Credence will be our son and no one will be able to say any different" - Gellert affirmed satisfied.

Albus knew that his feelings were rooted both in his possessiveness of their family and the deep-set fear he had felt at their teenage years when he had Seen Albus in danger of an Obscurial. With the adoption ritual they had planned, Credence would be linked to them in such a way that the Obscurial couldn't damage any of them.

Not like Ariana had hurt and killed Albus' mother.

Albus had felt a bit worried about the implications of the ritual, which seemed to draw from some of the oldest magic that old pureblood families used and which placed the safety of the family heads, mother and father, above everything else with the idea that a child - even the heir - could be replaced but the head of the family and their mate needed to be protected at all costs. Albus, however, was learning to pick up his battles with Gellert. This ritual shouldn't enter in conflict with Credence's security or free will, unless he was the one trying to attack one of them - conscious or unconsciously through the Obscurial - or if the three of them were attacked and both Albus were unable to defend themselves. Albus would make certain that Credence was protected and away of them if they were attacked. As for the first instance, he hoped that it would never happen that Credence felt threatened enough by them to try and attack them.

In another day the three of them would be a family. Officially.

* * *

Queenie looked around the room in curiosity, entering after Vinda. It was a huge space surprisingly empty of things except for the small altar in the very centre. The walls were round and the ceiling tall next to the walls and taller to the centre, growing into a dome above their heads with a small skylight in the middle. Given she hadn't seen it from the outside, she guessed that its location must be in the inner circle of the fortress, probably in the best-protected part of Nurmengard.

Queenie wasn't an Auror as her sister or a genius as Albus Dumbledore, but she recognised a ritual room when she was standing inside it. The glow of magic around them was almost an extra presence in the room, making clear that the two older wizards next to the altar had been already working at this ritual for a while now.

And they were taking this ceremony very seriously. Not that Queenie had ever doubted of their commitment to their promises and to the family they were creating with each other. It was clear that they wanted for Credence to be part of that family. As an alpha / omega pairing, the two of them would probably have children of their own - if Albus Dumbledore wasn't already pregnant by now, given their... efforts, Queenie wouldn't be surprised if he was - but they had made clear they wanted for Credence to be their first son and heir. With the blood adoption, he would be as much theirs as any children born from Dumbledore's womb. In magic, blood, and any legal document Gringotts could ask from them.

Albus raised his head from where he was giving the finishing touches to the small altar they were using. He looked much better and at peace than he had looked the other day. Clearly, he and Grindelwald had talked and the blond wizard had managed to calm his omega's fears and jealousy.

Not that Queenie had ever believed that the older wizard and Vinda had ever had anything for Albus to be jealous about. From what she had observed between them, and Vinda and her conversation the other night, it was clear that Grindelwald hadn't ever been interested in the elegant French witch. Actually, Queenie was pretty certain that the Dark wizard wasn't interested in women in general. He was extremely charming and polite - when he wanted - but his manner lacked some... awareness when being around women - an awareness Albus actually had although he didn't have eyes for anyone except his husband either. Queenie's Legimency - and her looks - made her very sensitive to that and, in the time she had known Grindelwald - including his time as Graves - she had never sensed any hint of interest from the older wizard when a woman was around - while he had shown a few of those with some of the men.

Now Albus was in residence, however, the older wizard interest was clear as water. He was constantly aware of his omega, where he was and what he was doing and with who. He was extremely tactile with the other man, always happy when he had him within reach and taking advantage of it by placing his arm around him, taking his hand and even walking up to the other wizard and stand at his back, surrounding the redhead with his arms.

Albus was very similar - and different at the same time. He was as smitten by his alpha as his mate was with him, certainly. He stayed close to the alpha and leaned on the touch of his husband easily, starting many of them himself. He seemed deeply committed to the relationship and at ease with the Dark wizard despite his reputation and the dark aura which seemed to follow the other wizard. Albus was clearly at peace with the other man use of the dark arts and his goals, although Queenie was aware that he was trying to convince him to shift his strategies. Given Dumbledore's reputation as the brightest mind of their generation, Queenie expected that the two of them would reform Grindelwald's movement to something new.

She was... hopeful.

Queenie was aware of Albus' approach while Vinda went to Grindelwald's side. The two of them nodded respectfully to each other but Queenie wasn't surprised to notice than either of them tried to talk to the other. Queenie hoped that Vinda would soon come to terms with what was happening with the older wizards. When Queenie had met her, she had initially believed that she was involved with the Dark Lord. Her mind, while mostly closed to the Legimens, couldn't hide her attraction to the older wizard. But when time passed Queenie realised that the older wizard's message and cause were her real focus. She was, as she had admitted, deeply committed to the cause.

Queenie suspected that, while she may feel some personal jealousy about the British wizard, it was her position as Grindelwald's right hand what she would fight to preserve.

Albus reached her side and smile kindly to her.

"Thank you for your presence Queenie" - Albus thanked her warmly offering her his hands in welcome.

Queenie took them into her own and smiled back, feeling up close how happy and excited the older wizard was. While the other wizard knew Occlumency and was usually able to keep her out of his thoughts, he didn't normally keep such tight control on his emotions. Right now he was spilling so much happiness and _brightness_ , that Queenie was surprised everyone couldn't feel it.

"It's my pleasure to be here. I am grateful you invited me to participate. I have only read of this ritual before, I have never participated in something like this before" - Queenie explained. She was truly honoured by the invitation. As a downside of her looks and attitude, she was aware that people, in general, didn't take her seriously most of the time and they wouldn't think she would be capable - or interested - in something like participate in a blood-adoption ritual.

"Of course we invited you, you have been wonderful with Credence and we all are very grateful for your presence here and your help with him. Credence doesn't have many people here he trust - or knows really - but you have been kind to him and we think you would be a wonderful witness for this" - Albus explained cheerfully. He led her back to the centre of the room where Grindelwald had been using his strange wand to finish the runes in the bowl.

Credence, in a pure white robe, was watching the procedures, but he spared a smile for her. Queenie returned his smile, happy to see him more at peace than he had been at the gardens. He seemed to have come to terms with his past and the family he had never gotten the chance to meet.

Grindelwald looked up at her approach, nodding in her direction.

"I understand that neither of us has ever participated in this ritual?" - Albus asked walking to Grindelwald's side and studying the final look of the bowl. The Dark wizard surrounded his shoulders with his arm when he was within reach as it was his custom and nodded in response.

"I am sure that between the two of us, we can work this out. Neither of us had made a blood-vow before and we managed to do it, didn't we?" - the blonde observed carelessly. Albus looked at him sideways while leaning back from the bowl, clearly satisfied with the final result.

"I am not certain that is something to be proud of. It could have blown up - _literally_ \- in our hands. I studied that kind of loyalty rituals when I was at Egypt and they were some tales of the consequences to botch them than I am not surprised they went out of fashion" - Albus commented absently turning to his nephew and looking him over with critical eyes.

He waved his wand absently in his direction casting some spells. As far as Queenie could tell he seemed to be checking on his health, temperature, weight, height... all his vitals were being shown above Credence's head and Albus observed them intently while the younger man squirmed uncomfortably. Grindelwald saw Credence's awkward look and explained.

"This ritual is as safe as we could make it, but it will _change_ you. In a very fundamental way. You need to be at your best for it to work safely" - Grindelwald explained while Albus finished his examination.

Albus nodded firmly to himself and dismissed the data with a wave of his hands.

"Everything seems to be in order, we should proceed" - he said looking up to the alpha. Grindelwald nodded in response and waved them all into their positions.

"I hope you all studied the papers I sent to you" - he warned leading Albus to one of the square altar's - where the bowl was placed - sides, the one facing North. He left Albus before the altar to one side while he stepped next to him, the two of them right next to each other sharing the North's side. Credence walked to the side opposite - South - of them and Vinda and she took the other to sides of the squared standing East and West respectively.

"I am sure they did Gell" - Albus said soothingly but his sharp gaze went through all of them as he reading all he needed from their faces, their postures and their very souls. He nodded satisfied by what he saw and nodded in Grindelwald direction.

The Dark wizard nodded in response and took out his wand again, waving it in the direction of the outer room, sealing the entrances and lowering the lights. He started the ritual, waving his hand and creating a shimmering blue vault above the five of them and then turning to Albus.

_  
Albus Dumbledore Grindelwald, Lord by the Albion Magics, Head of the House of Dumbledore, Professor at Hogwarts and its most brilliant student in a century. Inventor, idealist, Master in Defence, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Runes, Arithmancy, Astronomy and History of Magic and no-magic, do you accept to take this son to your house, to raise and protect him as if he were your own?  
_

Albus listened to his list of masteries with a slight flush to his face but his wand and hand stayed steady above the bowl in the altar.

"I accept" - he said firmly making a cut in his hand with his wand and letting seven drops to fall into the bowl. Once he was done, he lowered his hand and Grindelwald heal the cut with a wave of his wand, picking up Albus' hand lovingly and caressing the place where the scar had healed completely before he continued the ritual words.

_  
Lord Grindelwald, lord by the Albion magics, do you wish to grant a name in gift to your new child?  
_

Queenie felt surprised by the title, she hadn't thought about the fact that Albus' marriage to Grindelwald had made him a part of the other's wizards house. While Albus Dumbledore had become a household name, it was hard to remember he wasn't a pure-blood himself or that his father's family wasn't a well-known family at all. It had been Albus' brilliancy and work over the years which had made him the powerful and influential man he was. But in marriage, and by the laws the British and most of the other Ministries used, the Grindelwald family was older and more powerful so he had taken the name and title of his husband as it was common for the lesser title wizard or witch to do when they married into the heir of an older family.

Albus interrupted her thoughts with his answer to the ritual.

"I do" - he said looking up to Credence - "It is a custom of this ritual to grant one of the parents' name to the child. Gellert and I agreed that I was the one who had more of those to spare" - Albus smiled genially, and Queenie had to suppress a smile at the comment - "I would have given you Percival as it's my father's name and your grandfather's but I feel that name has been... tainted with other associations" - he indicated delicately before continuing - "I give you Wulfric so you can have one of my names who had the same root as your other father" - Albus concluded with a loving smile to this alpha.

Grindelwald looked surprised at the comment and he took a moment to recover before he continued the ritual turning to Credence.

_  
Credence Barebone, Aurelius Dumbledore, you have been offered elevation from the common to the Noble House of Grindelwald. Do you accept your new responsibilities to the Albion Family Magics? To honour your family? To stand by them and fight under their banner? To never harm them?  
_

Credence's eyes were watery and he looked about to faint but his voice remained strong when he answered.

"I do accept" - he said raising his hand and allowing Albus to open a slash for seven drops of blood to fall into the ritual bowl.

Once he was finished, Grindelwald healed the cut. Then - in a surprising gesture that Queenie hadn't expected, and by his face of surprise neither had Albus - he turned to the other wizard and offered his wand with a flourish. Queenie sensed she was missing something about this gesture given both Albus' and Vinda's reactions to it. While it was uncommon for a wizard to offer their own wand to others, it wasn't unheard. Although sometimes you had no other choice to use a strange wand, it was even rarer to find the wand of someone else would work for you. Only very close family - and not always - and very compatible mates were able to interchange wands between them. Albus' face showed he didn't know how to react to the offer but Grindelwald seemed to have expected that and he didn't waver in his offer, waiting patiently for his mate to make up his mind.

Albus finally picked up the strange wand while offering his own to the other wizard. The two of them gave a perfunctorily shake of their new wands, making sure they would work for them. And sure enough, both of them produced bright sparks from the ends of their new wands. Albus sent a loaded look to the blonde wizard which promised a lot of questions later, but he continued with the ritual without another delay looking back to Credence with an apologetic smile before raising the wand to take control of the blue vault above them, adding his own red light before addressing Grindelwald.

_  
Gellert Grindelwald, Lord by the Albion Magics, Head of the House of Grindelwald. Seer, idealist, Master at Defence, Charms and Transfiguration. Revolutionary and Visionary, do you accept to take this son to your house, to raise and protect him as if he were your own?  
_

"I accept" - Grindelwald said without hesitation, his hand steady above the bowl while making a straight cut in his palm with Albus' wand. It worked perfectly and the seven drops soon fell to the bowl. He then turned to his omega with a wicked smile and Albus fondly healed the cut with a shake of his - Grindelwald's - wand before turning to them.

_  
Queenie Goldstein, you are here as a witness of this adoption. Swear your pledge.  
_

Queenie took a breath before speaking.

"I witnessed this ritual. I have seen the adoption of Credence Barebone, Aurelius Dumbledore by Albus and Gellert Grindelwald. I swear by Magic that this is so and that all the steps have been taken for this to be the truth. I will testify this if it is asked from me" - she said with a firm voice and deep conviction.

Albus smiled.

"So mote it be" - he said before turning to Vinda and repeat the question.

__  
Vinda Rosier, you are here as a witness of this adoption. Swear your pledge.  


Vinda didn't hesitate before answering too.

"I witnessed this ritual. I have seen the adoption of Credence Barebone, Aurelius Dumbledore by Albus and Gellert Grindelwald. I swear by Magic that this is so and that all the steps have been taken for this to be the truth. I will testify this if it is asked from me" - she repeated as Queenie, his gaze firm in Albus'.

"So mote it be" - Albus finalized the pledge and gestured for them to confirm their vow. Queenie and Vinda raised their hands next to the bowl and both of them cut their hands and placed them on the exterior part of the bowl, marking it with their blood. The recipient started to warm now the ritual was finished and they all took a step back from the altar.

The bowl rose from his place and started to spin and glow. Albus and Grindelwald seemed at ease with the action and Credence knelled at the floor, closing his eyes and waited for the Magic's final judgement. This final step was one of the main reasons the ritual - and all blood rituals in general - were heavily discouraged or prohibited by the different Ministries.

If any of the participants weren't a hundred per cent sure about what the ritual asked from them, there would be consequences, and the Magic would enforce them immediately.

And they weren't good.

The bowl spinning started to circle all of them. It barely stopped at Grindelwald's and Albus' side, circling the couple once before going to Queenie's side. Queenie held her breath while the bowl went around her one, two, three... before finally changing directions to circle Vinda's. The brunette kept her face calm, but her mind wasn't. Queenie knew that the other witch feared that her... hesitation about her master's mate would reflect on the decision of the Magic. The bowl circled her seven times indeed, but her loyalty to Grindelwald finally seemed to deem her worthy so the bowl went above the kneeling form of Credence.

Credence stayed quiet with his eyes closed waiting for the bowl decision. All of them waited, holding their breaths for the moment of truth.

The bowl finally made its decision. It stopped its movements staying above Credence's head for a moment before a light started to shine from inside like the blood in the bowl combined with the potion Grindelwald and Albus had brewed had become a small sun. Queenie was unable to keep looking at it or Credence and she saw the rest averting their gazes too.

When she was able to open her eyes again, she turned in Credence's direction trying to see what had happened to the young man. The bowl - and the light - had dissipated and Credence was now lying in the ground, apparently unconscious. Albus and Grindelwald had gone to his side - the altar had also disappeared into the ground apparently - and Albus was kneeling next to the boy checking him out. He let out a relieved sigh when he finished and looked up to Grindelwald.

"He is fine. He accepted the adoption and his body is now integrating the changes and recovering from the shock" - he explained - "He should awake soon and be as well as usual by tomorrow" - he concluded and turning to look directly to Grindelwald he added - "The ritual acted as we expected" - Grindelwald's satisfied smile was almost feral at that last sentence and Queenie exchanged a confused look with Vinda, wondering what they had 'expected' for the ritual to do.

She was distracted by Credence's low groan and they returned their gazes to the young man on the floor. Queenie held her breath again, waiting for the confirmation of Credence's well being and she almost exclaimed out loud in relief when the dark brown eyes finally opened.

Except they weren't brown anymore. Queenie repressed a surprised gasp when she saw the blue eyes looking at them from Credence's familiar face. She remembered she had read about that from the papers Grindelwald had sent them. Apparently, with the blood adoption, the child or man adopted changed slightly to incorporate some of their adoptive parents. The changes weren't immediate - especially when the adopted was as old as Credence - but as it happened with babies, Credence had now the unsettled blue-eye gaze of a newborn child. In a few days, his eyes would change back to brown, or maybe he would get his eye colour from one of his parents. The same would happen with other features, although Albus had commented he didn't expect a lot of changes. Credence's age and his already existing relationship to Albus would make the changes small enough that - probably - he would be recognized by anyone who had met him before the adoption.

Albus smiled down to the boy and helped him to rise from the floor and led him away from the ritual room, closely followed by Grindelwald. He distractedly bid them farewell before following his family outside the room.

Queenie exchanged another look with Vinda, exhausted after the tense ritual and unable to settle on how to feel about what had happened.

"Would you like a drink?" - she finally asked the other woman, not wanting to be alone after what had happened and unsure of what she should say to the other people at the fortress until Albus or Grindelwald make the official announcement.

"Merlin! Oui! Yes" - Vinda said, looking as tired and bewildered as she - "I have a very nice bottle of wine in my room. I have been keeping it for..." - she trailed off uncomfortable and Queenie got a very clear image of what the older woman had been reserving the bottle for - "I think this is the perfect occasion to open it, it's a family product, you will love it if you know anything about wine - not that I expect you American know a lot about it" - Vinda said firmly clearly trying to keep focused.

Queenie nodded in agreement, already heading towards the door of the room calling over her shoulder.

"I will do my best to give my honest opinion about it" - she said easily, letting Vinda avoid the issue if that was her wish.

The two of them left the room together to get as drunk as possible and forget about Dark Lords, revolutions, unfilled loves and impossible attractions.


End file.
